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Roger Taylor, CEO, said: "We expect to deliver full year profits for CPW Europe in line with guidance, despite the market shift from 18 to 24 month contracts, a material decline in the prepay market and a tough consumer environment. Pressure on network ARPUs as a result of regulation and the challenging consumer environment will continue. Against this, however, as the shift from 18 to 24 month contracts completes, we are starting to enjoy material benefits from our new contract terms with the network operators. We are also seeing continued payback from our investment in the roll-out of our Wireless World store format, as well as continued momentum in non-cellular product categories where we see real opportunity. Although the prepay market remains weak, we have some reason to be more optimistic about the increasing presence of smartphones in this segment in the year ahead. Virgin Mobile France has been robust against the increased competition, seeing a return to postpay customer growth in March and delivering significant revenue growth for the quarter. Having agreed a 'full MVNO' contract with both Orange and SFR, the business can now progressively move its customer base onto this platform, bringing significant benefits. The recent launch of quad-play also provides a new potential strategic opportunity and value-driver."

Carphone Warehouse Group plc Q4 Trading Update 2011-12 Reiterating Full Year Headline Earnings Guidance · CPW Europe · Growth in Q4 UK postpay volumes year-on-year and continued momentum in non-cellular revenue · Continued weakness in lower value prepay market resulting in total Q4 LFL revenue down by 5.5%, in line with expectations · Virgin Mobile France · Q4 revenue growth of 21% · Postpay customer growth resumed in March · Proceeds of £813 million from the disposal of Best Buy Mobile returned to shareholders · Full year Headline earnings expected to be in line with previous guidance

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201205090700179537C

The chairman of William Hill mounted the first corporate fight-back against the "Shareholder Spring" on Tuesday and criticised investors for blindly voting against the company's pay policies. Gareth Davis said he had "no intention" of backing down on a £1.2m bonus for Ralph Topping, chief executive - even though 49.9% of investors failed to approve the remuneration report. The bookmaker tackled the rebellion just hours after Aviva announced that Andrew Moss had quit as chief executive with immediate effect. Last week 59% of investors refused to back Aviva's pay policies. Mr Moss, the third FTSE 100 boss to be toppled following investor pressure, will be paid a £1.75m severance package, according to The Telegraph.

Phil Bellamy-Lee, Chief Executive, commented: "We operate in a heavily regulated sector of the gas industry and can only do so if we have the highest quality systems in place. It is therefore particularly pleasing to confirm that Energy Assets has added OAMI accreditation to its list of accreditations, providing additional operational flexibility and therefore the opportunity to further improve service delivery to our customers. The outcome of our last two operational audits is testament to all of our employees and supply partners' collective efforts and the emphasis we place on investment and the continued development of our systems and processes."

OAMI Accreditation Energy Assets, the largest independent provider of gas metering and related services to the UK Industrial and Commercial ("I&C") market1, is pleased to announce that it has achieved accreditation as an Ofgem Approved Meter Installer ('OAMI'), having passed its first audit. This follows on from the recent successfully completed 3 yearly Meter Asset Management ('MAM') audit. Energy Assets' systems and processes proved their value in both audit processes, with not a single non-conformity recorded. MAM audits are carried out annually with a complete system review undertaken on a rolling 3 year cycle. The Group now has the following accreditations: Siteworks - GIRS accredited MAM services - Ofgem accredited AMR services - ESTA accredited Quality management system - ISO 9001:2008

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201205090700199303C

Stephen Harris, who has held the role of Chief Executive Officer at FTSE 250 heat treatment firm Bodycote for over three years, sliced off a sizeable chunk of his shares on May 4th. Harris, who has also been a director of Spectris, ditched 94,000 shares at 421.00p each, earning himself the handsome sum of £395,740. He now holds 542,983 shares in the firm.

Canaccord Genuity maintained its "buy" recommendation for Lancashire Holdings (LRE), but with a reduced target price of 780p, from 800p. The insurance company reported first quarter pre-tax profits of 46.5 million dollars (28.8 million pounds), which the broker noted beat consensus forecasts by 8%. Canaccord also pointed out that these results did not include Japanese renewals in April, which it said achieve strong prices for catastrophe insurance.

Panmure Gordon reiterated its "buy" recommendation for Sportech (SPO) with a 67p target price. The sports gambling company will issue its first quarter interim statement on Thursday 10th May and the broker expects to see a continued strong performance, following on from 2011's full year EBITDA of 26.1 million pounds, beating forecasts of 25.4 million pounds. Panmure added that the group's net debt position was lower than forecasts at 59.2 million pounds and the broker's earnings forecasts put the shares on a prospective multiple of 8.8 times for 2012

Shore Capital retained its "buy" stance on RSA Insurance (RSA) with a target price of 140p. The broker noted a solid first quarter performance from the group, with premium growth of 5% and a 3% rise in NAV to 107p. Shore noted that the insurer suffered a 17% decline in its UK motor business, but said that this was compensated for by 22% premiums growth in Latin America and Asia, as well as building positions in Scandinavia and Canada. The broker also pointed to the firm's attractive dividend, yielding 8.9% for the 2012 financial year

Pablo - I think I agree for time being

David Nel, CEO of SNR, said: "This joint venture signals a strengthening of our relationship with Trasteel. We believe that this new, higher margin anthracite focus will assist greater value creation for shareholders, whilst being developed along side a thermal coal business. We are also very pleased to report rapid progress at the mine in support of this pivotal opportunity for Elitheni coal."

Trading Update AdEPT Telecom plc (AIM: ADT) today issues a trading update for the year ended 31 March 2012 ahead of final results which are expected to be announced in early July 2012. The Company is pleased to announce that it expects that underlying EBITDA will be in line with the previous year and ahead of analysts' forecasts. Turnover is expected to be slightly below analysts' forecasts but adjusted profit before tax is expected to be significantly ahead of the prior year and ahead of market expectations. The reduction in net borrowings will be ahead of market expectations. Traditional fixed line network service revenues have been below expectation following the impact of regulation reducing mobile call rates. However improved gross margin percentages have resulted in stable absolute gross margins. This has been partially offset by 20% growth in revenues generated from 'cloud' or network-based inbound call handling solutions and 40% growth in data connectivity revenues. AdEPT has broadened its product range further during the year particularly with regard to data connectivity and next generation products, including MPLS & E-LAN networks, fibre broadband, hosted and cloud telephony. The first revenues from hosted and SIP solutions provided by AdEPT VoIP for Business have been generated during the second half of the year, albeit at a relatively low level. AdEPT continues to consistently generate strong cash flow. The focus on underlying profitability and cash conversion of operating profit has resulted in a reduction to net borrowings of £2.02m during the year to £5.35m at 31 March 2012. AdEPT announced a maiden dividend of 0.5p per share in its interim statement, which was paid to shareholders on 20 April 2012. Despite the continuing uncertainty over the general direction of the economy, the Board is confident that continued strong cash generation, and further reductions in the level of debt in future, will support a progressive dividend policy.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201205090700109106C

Ignore last post apologies - wrong board

Announcing this significant contract win Rob Terry, Chairman and Group Chief Executive of Quindell said: "We are delighted to have concluded this deal that we see as an excellent example of the validation of Quindell's strategy for lowering the cost of claim for the UK insurance industry whilst operating ethically, protecting consumer rights and delivering service excellence. This contract win, which is one of a number we hope to announce this year, is one of the clearest signs yet of the progress we have made in proving our ability to win long term contracts of significant value with the largest blue chip insurance sector providers during this period of significant change for the insurance industry. The fact that we have been chosen after extensive due diligence and that we shall now be demonstrating the value of our combined proposition to more than half of the UK's top ten insurers via the contract win announced today provides the Group with further confidence in its ability to close additional significant business with a number of these insurers directly within the second half of 2012."

Jefferies upgrades from underperform to hold, target lifted from 68p to 77p.

8th May 2012 Analyst: Dr Michael Green Email: michael.green@gecr.co.uk Tel: 020 7562 3370 Ovoca Gold* - Cash-rich Russian gold explorer with plans to self-fund a gold mine into production by 2013. Speculative Buy at 19.5p with a 41p target price

Last week's update from retailer Next was solid, with a fall in sales at its high street stores offset by sales at its home shopping business. Store sales fell 3.9pc in the 13 weeks to April 28, hurt by the recent bad weather. This was slightly worse than consensus expectations. Next Directory sales were slightly better than the City had pencilled in, rising 11.4pc. So, overall, sales rose 1.4pc. It is also noteworthy that Next was up against tough comparative numbers, with last year's first-quarter sales jumping 5.2pc following a warm Easter and the build-up to the Royal Wedding. The company will need to continue to deliver to maintain this rating – whatever shocks happen to the wider economy. The retail sector has already derated over the past month. There is no doubt that Next is a well-run, quality business. But Questor feels the shares are up with events and profit should be taken as they present themselves. Questor says sell.