Member Info for mulledwine

PDX will be holding its Annual General Meeting today at 12:00 a.m. (noon). In his address to shareholders, Chairman, Mr. Andrew Quinn will provide the following update: Introduction "Since our last AGM, PDX has had a busy year and has made tremendous progress on a wide range of fronts. The management reorganisation that we highlighted last year has led to the appointment of new leaders for our Biofuels and Brewing, Food and Beverages businesses, each of whom are leaders in their field. Each Line of Business ("LOB") has established an impressive pipeline of target contracts that are now at various stages of commercial development. We have also broadened significantly our coverage of patent protection as our business opportunities have been expanded. We have also continued to recruit high quality scientists, project managers and business development professionals to augment our current capability. A key joint venture has been established with National Nuclear Laboratory Ltd to exploit our de-contamination capability in the civil nuclear industry. New relationships have been established with major partners, such as Proctor and Gamble and Kärcher Futuretech GmbH ("Kärcher"). In May 2010 we successfully raised additional funds for the business under the leadership of our CEO, Roel Pieper, which put us on a sound financial footing. We have appointed a new CFO, Richard Webster, to strengthen our management team, and have reviewed our corporate structure to improve its tax-efficiency.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201102280700179316B

Stated Chief Executive Officer, Richard Cooper: " We are very pleased with the progress made to date in transitioning the Company from one focussed on marine acquisition to one exclusively focussed on high end geophysical consulting. We have made excellent progress over the last four months, since the disposal on 2 November, in bedding down and setting the agenda for the new organisation. This progress, together with the renaming of the Company to Rock Solid Images means we can look forward to the second half of the year with considerable optimism and enthusiasm."

Robert Hiscox, Chairman of Hiscox Ltd, commented: "Mother Nature has well and truly tested us this year and a pre-tax profit of £211.4 million is further strong evidence of the resilience of our business."

Financial highlights · A strong pre-tax profit of £211.4 million (2009: £320.6 million) despite specific catastrophe claims of £165 million · Profit after tax £178.8 million (2009: £280.5 million);15.4% effective tax rate · Gross written premiums remain flat at £1,432.7 million (2009: £1,435.4 million) · Investment return of 3.6% (2009: 7.2%) · Earnings per share 47.2p (2009: 75.2p) · Total dividend for the year increased by 10% to 16.5p (2009: 15.0p) · Net assets per share increased by 11.2% to 332.7p (2009: 299.2p) · Combined ratio 89.3% (2009: 86.0%) · Return on equity 16.5% (2009: 30.1%) Operational highlights · Hiscox London Market focused on margin over growth reducing income by 13.6%, delivering profits of £121.4 million despite catastrophes. · Specialist retail businesses in the UK and Europe delivered good growth and doubled profits, again despite catastrophes. · Rates still attractive in reinsurance and stable in other specialty lines. · The first 'direct from insurer' small business offering in the US launched with promising early results.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201102280701079282B

Commenting on the interim results Haydn Gardner, Chief Executive, said: "The oil and gas assets division has performed very well in the first half with the addition of nine new North Sea blocks to its portfolio. The Athena development was sanctioned and revenues from first oil are expected in Q4 2011. "Due to the severe flooding in Australia, the drilling fluids division revenues were down on the same period last year but improved on the second half by 18%. The Board is encouraged to see a large number of onshore drilling rigs returning to work and we look forward to improving revenues in the second half of 2011. "Drilling activity in the coal bed methane sector should rise significantly in the second half now that two of these projects are sanctioned for development. Rheochem is well placed to take advantage of this increased activity, as it already has supply contracts with several customers in this sector."

Rheochem Plc, the oil and gas business with oil services, production, development and exploration assets today announces its interim results for the period ended 31 December 2010. Financial highlights · Group revenue of A$10.17m (2009 H1: A$11.80m) · Group EBITDA loss of A$0.66m (2009 H1: profit of A$0.42m) Operational Highlights · Athena oilfield granted development approval · $14 million loan facility secured for the Athena development · Santos contract renewals onshore and offshore Australia · Awarded a 90% interest in nine new North Sea Offshore blocks

http://www.investegate.co.uk/article.aspx?id=201102280921539565B&fe=1

Ultra Electronics confident about 2011 Date: Monday 28 Feb 2011 LONDON (ShareCast) - Decent revenue growth from Ultra Electronics sparked a 15% increase in underlying profit at the defence electronics supplier last year. Profit before tax and exceptional items rose to £102.7m in 2010 from £89.5m the year before on revenue up 9% to £710m. Organic growth at constant currencies was 6%. Including everything profit fell 15% to £91.3m, mostly due to a £55.6m gain on derivatives in 2009 compared with just £8.9m this time. Ultra’s order book had risen 7% to £817.9m by the end of 2010, though previously flagged delays in the award of contracts in both the UK and US has impacted the closing order book value. “With its broad portfolio of offerings, Ultra has positioned itself within its markets on long-term programmes and in areas of preferential customer spend,” said chief executive Douglas Caster who becomes chairman this year. Chief operating officer Rakesh Sharma takes over. “Its strategies have enabled Ultra to create a resilient business model that has maintained growth momentum and that underpins continued progress in 2011," Carter added. An 11% increase in the final dividend to 24p a share takes the total for the year to 34.6p.

Asia Pacific drives Hays growth Date: Monday 28 Feb 2011 LONDON (ShareCast) - International recruitment firm Hays shrugged off a workaday performance back in Blighty to post a sharp increase in interim profits. The group hailed an “excellent performance” in Asia Pacific, which delivered net fee growth of 38% as part of a group performance where net fees rose 23%, or 20% on a like for like (LFL) basis, to £326.1m in the six months to end-December from £264.8m the year before. The group said 62% of group net fees were generated from outside of the UK, with growth in Continental Europe and the Rest of the World up 33%, led by Germany, which grew net fees by 38%. In the UK, the going was tough in the public sector, where net fees slumped 36% but net fees from the private sector grew 27% to offset this. “18 countries around the world grew net fees by more than 25%,” noted Hays chief executive Alistair Cox. Profit before tax and exceptional items jumped 60% to £48.6m from £30.4m. “Our IT [information technology] investment projects are now substantially complete and our focus has moved on to fully utilising these systems to drive productivity, efficiency and customer service,” Cox added. The trend of faster growth in the permanent placement part of the market continued, with net fees from “permanents” rising 34% on a like for like basis to £147.4m, while LFL growth in net fees from “temps” was 11% at £178.7m. The proportion of the total represented by net fees from temps declined to 55% from 59%. Net debt increased from £77.2m at the end of June to £125.7m, primarily due to the payment of the dividend and the increase in net working capital. The interim dividend has been held at 1.85p.

http://www.stockopedia.co.uk/content/tanzaniteone-discovers-exceptional-12100-carat-tanzanite-stone-54421/

Outlook The final two months of the extended financial year to 28 February 2011 are normally fairly quiet for the business which, due to seasonality, are typically loss making. However we are still seeing a lot of activity, with some of our backlist titles, including Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, by Helen Simonson performing well. For new titles, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother has gone to No 3 in The Sunday Times bestseller list. Into the new 2011 financial year, we have a novel from Orange-Prize winner, Ann Patchett, and the graphic novel of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini coming. We are publishing four previous Booker shortlist authors: Paul Bailey, Magnus Mills, Abdulrazak Gurnah and Justin Cartwright. New books from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Heston Blumenthal and new authors Raymond Blanc and Paul Hollywood join our food list. With effect from 1 March 2011, Bloomsbury will undergo an organisation change. With the huge growth in digital publishing the market for books is becoming more global. Our major customers are also becoming more global, and, indeed, so is the media with whom we promote our books. The increasing demand for e-books means that acquiring world rights to books and exploiting them globally is becoming the most effective way of protecting our territorial copyrights. The Group will be divided into four Global publishing divisions: Adult; Children's & Educational; Academic & Professional; and Bloomsbury Information & Business Development. The two major supporting service divisions for this will be a single unified structure for Sales, Marketing and Rights across the Group and a Group Production function. This is a redeployment of valuable resources within the Group to position us more effectively as a global publisher in print and digital. This is a very exciting move for Bloomsbury as it provides us with a more flexible structure to capitalise on current and future changes in the market place. Nigel Newton Chief Executive 28 February 2011

Commenting on the results and prospects for Bloomsbury, Nigel Newton, Chief Executive, said: "Bloomsbury had an excellent year with a number of bestselling titles and particularly buoyant sales in the final quarter. We are also benefitting from our strong position in digital publishing which continues to experience exciting and unprecedented growth. With sales of digital devices such as the Kindle, Nook and iPad growing rapidly, 2011 will clearly be the year of the e-book. Our overall trade e-book sales are currently running at just under 10% of print sales, a proportion we expect to increase as more backlist titles are added and as the UK market gains the kind of momentum being seen in the US. We believe that digital publishing creates huge opportunities for Bloomsbury and its authors. On 1 March 2011, we will be implementing a new strategic plan for One Global Bloomsbury with Four Worldwide Publishing Divisions. "

Operating highlights · Best performance ever from Bloomsbury US · Berlin Verlag made an operating profit in the second half · Bestsellers across the Group: - Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert - The Finkler Question - Howard Jacobson - winner of the 2010 Man Booker Prize - Operation Mincemeat - Ben Macintyre - Berthold Beitz - Joachim Kappner · Acquisition of Bristol Classical Press · E-book sales have grown eighteen fold in 2010 over 2009 from $131k to $2.3m · Appointment of two new Non Executive Directors in 2010 and new Group Finance Director in 2011 · Appointment of a Managing Director, Group Sales and Marketing, a Managing Director of new Children's and Educational division and a new Managing Director of Berlin Verlag · Major online initiatives including - Berg Fashion Library Online - Public Library Online in new territories - Professional Library Online - Winston Churchill Archives digitisation - Reeds Nautical Online · Conception of the strategy for One Global Bloomsbury - Four Worldwide Publishing Divisions. This will be implemented on 1 March 2011 at the start of the new financial year. A&C Black, Berlin Verlag, Berg, Bloomsbury UK and Bloomsbury USA will be replaced by four new worldwide publishing divisions for Adult; Children's and Educational; Academic and Professional; and Business Development which will be the basis of future management structure and reporting

Financial highlights The highlights for the twelve months ended 31 December 2010 include: · Revenue of £90.7m (2009: £87.2m) · Adjusted pre-tax profit pre- highlighted items* of £8.4m (2009, £7.7m) · Unadjusted pre-tax profit of £5.5m (2009, £7.1m) · Adjusted basic earnings per share (pre-highlighted items) of 8.50p (2009, 7.56p) Basic earnings per share of 4.61p (2009, 6.77p) · Profit from Bloomsbury USA of £1.3m before central cost recharges of £0.2m (2009, £0.5m before central cost recharges of £0.2m) · Net cash of £34.1m (2009, £35.0m). Strong cash inflow from operating activities of £5.1m (2009, outflow £4.3m) Second interim dividend per share of 3.91p, an increase of 7% on the 2009 final dividend of 3.65p. The intention is to announce a further dividend for the 2 month period to 28 February 2012 *Highlighted items comprise Goodwill impairment, amortisation of intangible assets, acquisition costs, aborted acquisition costs and relocation costs

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201102280700149254B

AWE Contract Award Redhall Group plc, the specialist engineering support services group, is pleased to announce it has secured a key contract for the design, manufacture and installation of specialist engineered doors for AWE for a replacement facility at Burghfield. The first phase award is planned to start shortly and is expected to be a part of a £20 million contract that will be staged over the next four years. David Jackson, Chairman of Redhall commented: "We are delighted with this latest contract win and our developing relationship with AWE in support of its future plans. This award demonstrates Redhall's growing reputation for delivering specialist turnkey engineering projects in demanding nuclear and defence arenas. "

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201102280700139216B

. Phil Cartmell, Executive Chairman and CEO commented, "This is another major step forward for us and is in line with our stated strategy to expand the breadth of partnership agreements to support the ongoing development of Corac's core technology. This study involves the application of the DGC technology in a significantly different well environment from that of our current projects, which importantly deploys the DGC earlier in a well's life cycle. Also, it is clear that the Company's strengthened balance sheet resulting from the recent fund-raising in December, together with the improved infrastructure to deliver this type of project, were factors that helped us to secure this study."