Member Info for mulledwine

Highlights · Sales up 3%; headline operating profit up 5% · Headline operating margin up 40 basis points to 18.2% · Company funded R&D increased by 5% to £99m · Restructuring programme savings of £15m; £56m to date from £70m target · Cash conversion strong - with free cash flow of £236m and year end net debt of £729m · Dividend up 7% · Return on capital employed up 40 basis points to 17.0%

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201109280700160525P

Silverdell (SID) kept its "buy" recommendation from Merchant Securities, with a 14p target price. The broker believes that Marks and Spencers 1 million pound fine, issued yesterday, for failing to properly handle asbestos, highlights the market of opportunity for the hazardous material consultant. The firm is benefiting from a series of refurbishment schemes from a number of retailers, says Merchant and has begun acquisitions to increase its presence. The broker adds that the takeover programme will also help the group to its goal of gaining security clearance for operating at all nuclear facilities. The shares were unchanged at 10.875p.

Ahead of an expected trading update, Arbuthnot Securities maintained is "buy" recommendation for Renew Holdings (RNWH) with a target price of 112p. The engineering and construction group operates in fields which the broker believes are highly attractive: power, environment and rail; and notes significant investment projections from Network Rail, with a background annual growth in rail traffic of between 4% and 5%. Shares in Renew dropped 1.5p to 56.5p.

Morson (MRN) retained its "buy" rating from Brewin Dolphin, but with a reduced target price of 125p, from 135p. The engineering outsourcing company performed ahead of the broker's expectation with pre-tax profits of 3.9 million pounds, compared to an expected 3.7 million pounds. Brewin has reduced its full year pre-tax profit forecasts to 12.2 million pounds, from 12.5 million pounds to reflect challenging market conditions and margin pressures. However, the broker believes that recent share price weakness presents an attractive opportunity and with a dividend yield of 7.5% (6.012p). The shares lost 2p to 80.5p.

Gerry Mason, Non Executive Chairman, said: "As is well documented underlying market conditions during the year to date have remained poor, influenced by a lack of global capital expenditure and worldwide attempts to kick start investment activity. Despite this Morson produced a solid performance in line with our expectations."

Morson (AIM: MRN.L) the UK's leading provider of technical contracting personnel to the aerospace and defence, nuclear and power, rail and other technical industries, is pleased to announce its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2011. Highlights · Solid trading performance across all sectors in line with Directors' expectations: o revenue up 11.0% to £246.3m (H1 2010: £221.8m); o net fee income (gross profit) up 11.4% to £18.6m (H1 2010: £16.7m); o operating profit down 30.1% to £3.8m (H1 2010: £5.4m); o profit before taxation down 40.8% to £3.1m (H1 2010: £5.3m); o adjusted profit before taxation* down 7.3% to £3.9m (H1 2010: £4.2m); o basic EPS of 5.20p (H1 2010: 8.33p); and o adjusted EPS† of 6.55p (H1 2010: 7.05p). · Net debt marginally increased during the period to £24.4m, up £1.2m from £23.2m at 31 December 2010, despite the acquisition of Wynnwith. · All key contract renewals secured. · New contract wins achieved including URENCO UK Ltd in the nuclear sector and others in the automotive sector. · Acquisition of the outstanding minority stake in Morson Wynnwith in February 2011 for £4.0m with integration completed. · Market conditions remain challenging but with positive longer term prospects. · Interim dividend maintained at 2.0p per share (H1 2010: 2.0p per share).

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201109280700150507P

Panmure Gordon initiated coverage of Tissue Regenix (TRX) with a "buy" recommendation and a target price of 17p. The healthcare company has patents in new human tissue technology for use in transplants and the broker believes this could be used in a number of markets. Although many of the products are several years from being finalised, Panmure believes the group could generate revenues of 6 million pounds in 2016, rising to 62 million pounds in 2020. The shares stayed flat at 12.75p

Safestore chief executive locks up some cash Safestore's chief executive Peter Gowers has made his first deposit since joining the self storage company in February, spending more than £100,000. He took 100,000 shares at 105p a time. Gowers is a former chief executive of Holiday Inn owner InterContinental Hotels Group's Asia Pacific division

JP Morgan Cazenove upgrades Johnson Matthey from neutral to overweight, target price cut from 2,330p to 2,100p.

CONT Additional data in the NDA submission included results from the CAPRA-1 study, which was a 12 week, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in Europe evaluating 288 RA patients. CAPRA-1 compared the night-time administration of Lodotra® with the morning administration of immediate release prednisone at the same individual dose (average dose of 6.7 mg). Horizon has announced that the results from CAPRA-1 demonstrated: · A statistically significant reduction in morning stiffness compared with patients in the immediate release group, the primary outcome of the trial (22.7% for Lodotra® compared with 0.4% for immediate release prednisone (p-value = 0.045)) · Patients treated with Lodotra® had a reduction in IL-6 levels of approximately 29% (relative median change), which was statistically significant, while corresponding IL-6 levels following treatment with immediate release prednisone remained constant Following the 12-week CAPRA-1 study, patients were followed in a nine-month, open-label extension study, which included 249 RA patients, 219 of whom completed the extension study. Results showed that patients who continued treatment with Lodotra® experienced a 55% reduction in the duration of morning stiffness. Further, patients newly assigned to Lodotra® exhibited a 45% reduction in the duration of morning stiffness over the nine-month course of this extension study. These patients also experienced a 50% median reduction in IL-6 levels that also corresponded to improvements in the duration of morning stiffness following daily administration of Lodotra®. A Phase 3 clinical trial of Lodotra® for the treatment of polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) is being planned by Horizon. This indication is not included in the NDA.

SkyePharma Announces Submission of New Drug Application in the United States for Lodotra® for the treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis LONDON, UK, 28 September, 2011 - SkyePharma PLC (LSE: SKP) today announces that its licensee, Horizon Pharma, Inc ("Horizon"), has submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Lodotra® for the treatment of active rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Lodotra® utilises SkyePharma's Geoclock™ technology to provide a proprietary delayed-release formulation of low-dose prednisone. Prednisone is currently FDA-approved for RA and commonly used to inhibit the production of various pro-inflammatory cytokines, which are proteins associated with joint inflammation in RA. SkyePharma is entitled to a low-mid single digit percentage royalty on net sales of Lodotra® in North America and a mid-single digit percentage royalty elsewhere. Lodotra® is manufactured at the Lyon Manufacturing Facility recently leased by the Group to Aenova. The Lodotra® NDA submission was primarily based on results from the Circadian Administration of Prednisone in RA (CAPRA-2) trial, a pivotal, 12-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 3 trial involving 350 RA patients. Both treatment groups in the trial continued to receive standard of care RA treatment with a disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD). Horizon has announced that the results from CAPRA-2 demonstrated: · A statistically significant improvement in American College of Rheumatology 20 (ACR20) response criteria, the primary study endpoint, for patients who were treated with Lodotra® compared with the placebo group (48.5% vs. 28.6%; p-value = 0.0002) · A statistically significant improvement in ACR50 response compared with placebo (22.7% vs. 9.2%; p-value = 0.0027) and an improvement in the more stringent ACR70 response criteria (7.0% vs. 2.5%; p-value = 0.0955) · A statistically significant reduction in morning stiffness compared with patients in the placebo group (56.5% vs. 33.3%; p-value = 0.0008)

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201109281610131284P

Guys I am no expert by a long way on this situation - what is left of SCHE by the time the dust settles is anyones guess - If it still comes back as a Public Company it may hardly be recognised in in present forms regarding no of shares and price - from what I can make out she still breathes but only just - time will tell. GL

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/southern-cross-to-begin-transfers-2361964.html

Outlook · Demand for new taxis has improved amid growing interest in the latest 'Blue Efficiency' (Euro V) Vito taxi, with its share of the London taxi market building momentum · On track to return to EBITDA profit in the second half 2011, driven by cost cutting, return to revenue growth and a recovery in gross margins vs. the first half · Well placed to benefit from new EU environmental regulations and 15-year age limit rules for London taxis from 2012, representing a potential replacement market of about 3,000 vehicles Commenting on the results, Peter DaCosta, Chief Executive, said: "Our first half results were affected by challenging trading conditions and a blip in new orders whilst customers waited for the much anticipated launch of our latest Mercedes Euro V Vito taxi. "This new 'Blue Efficiency' version, with improved fuel savings, has been very well received by taxi drivers and customers alike, enabling the Vito to further differentiate itself from the old-style black cabs. As a result, new taxi sales have shown a solid uplift since its launch and our market share is on the rise again. While conditions for the automotive sector remain challenging due to economic uncertainty, the Group looks to the second half of 2011 and 2012 with cautious optimism."

Results for the six months ended 30 June 2011 Eco City Vehicles PLC, a developer and supplier of eco-friendly commercial vehicles and the London licensed taxi, announces its results for the six months ended 30 June 2011. Financial highlights · Total revenues decreased by 9.2% to £11.6m (H1 2010: £12.8m) as sales of the outgoing Euro IV Vito slowed ahead of the highly anticipated launch of the new Euro V model in April 2011 · Gross margin at 13.7% (H1 2010: 17.7%), reflecting lower pricing of Euro IV Vito taxis to clear out inventory of outgoing model · After sales division revenue broadly unchanged at £1.6m with sales into Mercedes-Benz market up by 216% year-on-year, accounting for majority of division's revenue · EBITDA loss from continuing operations before non-recurring items amounted to £0.48m (H1 2010: £0.1m profit) primarily due to One80 Limited, ECV's technology subsidiary. Excluding One80 Limited, like-for-like EBITDA loss was £0.2m Operating highlights · Total new Vito units sales at 171 (H1 2010: 234) · Launched new, improved Euro V compliant version of Vito London-licensed taxi, well ahead of tighter European Union emission regulations in 2012 · Second stage manufacture of Vito in Coventry transferred to Mercedes-Benz · Developing Mercedes-Benz Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV) after sales dealership, further strengthening relationship with Mercedes-Benz · Gained service agency for Modec electric vehicles in London · Implemented restructuring plan to reduce annual cost base by £0.5m, with initial benefits expected in the second half of 2011

http://www.halifaxmarketwatch.co.uk/rns.cgi?username=&ac=&action=news&rns=1&view=full&story_id=4544014

Mike Lawrie, Chief Executive, Misys plc, comments `In this first and smallest quarter of our year in terms of orders and revenue, Misys reported revenue growth of 4%. We continued to add significant new customers, 11 in Banking and 13 in Capital Markets. Both the Banking and TCM divisions showed growth in orders and also showed revenue growth in all regions. In Misys Sophis, three deals were delayed and these are now at final contract sign-off stage. We continue to see high potential in Misys Sophis following its successful integration into the Group. I am pleased with the continuing positive impact on the business of new solutions in Banking and our broad cross-asset class solutions in TCM'.