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Pearson gets cash windfall Date: Wednesday 17 Aug 2011 LONDON (ShareCast) - Educational publisher Pearson is to receive a belated cash windfall from the sale of its Government Solutions business back in 2006. Pearson sold the business to Veritas Capital in December 2006 but retained an equity stake in it. The business has subsequently been sold on by Veritas Capital to General Dynamics, as a result of which Pearson now expects to receive additional cash proceeds of around $115m before tax.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201108170700085039M

Hmmmmm certainly does not look good but you never know - lets see whats left in the ashes

COMPLETION OF ACQUISITION OF 49 PER CENT. STAKE IN MANROY USA, ADMISSION OF NEW ORDINARY SHARES AND TOTAL VOTING RIGHTS The Directors of Manroy (AIM: MAN), the UK's leading machine gun manufacturer, are pleased to make the following announcement: Completion of acquisition and admission of new ordinary shares Further to the Company's announcement on 16 August 2011 and in accordance with the circular to shareholders of Manroy dated 25 July 2011 (the "Circular"), the Company has today completed the acquisition of a 49 per cent. stake in Manroy USA LLC ("MUSA") from Caledonian Heritable Limited ("Caledonian"). As part of this acquisition, Manroy also acquired Caledonian's loan account to MUSA and its 50 per cent. interest in the premises from which MUSA operates. Manroy USA is a limited liability company that is governed by a board of managers which operates in a similar manner to a board of directors in the UK. Glyn Bottomley and David Low, Chief Executive and non-executive Director of Manroy respectively, will join the board of managers of MUSA as representatives of Manroy. 2,049,069 new ordinary shares of 5p each ("Ordinary Shares") in the Company (the "Consideration Shares") have been issued as consideration for the acquisition and have today been admitted to trading on AIM. As a result of the admission of the Consideration Shares, the Concert Party (as defined in the Circular) has an aggregate interest in the Company of 7,142,368 Ordinary Shares, representing approximately 39.3 per cent. of the Company's issued share capital. This comprises 4,394,069 Ordinary Shares (24.2 per cent.) held by Caledonian, of which 3,594,069 are held in the name of Caledonian and 800,000 are held in the name of Kevin Hugh Michael Doyle, a director and owner of Caledonian; 2,081,632 (11.4 per cent.) are held by Glyn Bottomley, Manroy's Chief Executive; and 666,667 (3.7 per cent.) are held by Surinder Rajput

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201108170830014912M

Excellent results

"ENRC continued its strong financial and operational performance in the first half of 2011. Building on solid foundations in Kazakhstan, we are strategically well located to benefit from China's continued economic growth. Notwithstanding the greater near term volatility that we expect in commodity markets, we are focused on enhancing productivity and controlling costs across the Group to maintain our advantageous low cost position. We are developing our assets in Africa and Brazil, which promise to deliver significant growth and value in the coming years, as well as continuing our investment in Kazakhstan. I can report that the Board corporate governance review, announced at the AGM, is well underway. We are confident that the review will result in the right Board needed to lead the Group through its next growth phase

. Outlook for Full Year 2011 · Production and saleable volumes expected to be maintained at effective full capacity. · Risk of near term volatility in both prices and growth trajectories for our key commodities. · Revenue momentum expected to slow in H2 2011. Improvement in commodity markets expected in late 2011/early 2012. · Continued strong growth in China and emerging markets expected to underpin growth in 2011-2012. · Cost pressures remain, with unit cost of sales growth of approximately 20% in line with expectations. Continued high development costs in Africa and Brazil and the impact of increased social investment. · 2011 capital expenditure estimated at US$2.2 billion; total project spend of US$11.0 billion. · Approval of the Kazakhstan Iron Ore Division's capital expenditure to 'Execution' stage.

Business Highlights for H1 2011 · Production remained at full capacity across the Group, with incremental growth in aluminium and the continued planned expansion of copper and cobalt. · Iron Ore Division emerged as the largest single Underlying EBITDA contributor, at 43% of the Group's total. · Copper and cobalt in Africa continued to develop in line with planned growth. · The Group's relative low cost production advantage was maintained, notwithstanding industry-wide cost growth. · Capital expenditure of US$0.7 billion: new Aktobe ferroalloys plant on track; alumina expansion to 1.7 mtpa completed; power unit 2 at EEC completed and commissioned.

Announcement of 2011 Half Year Results Financial Highlights for H1 2011 · Strong growth against H1 2010. Recovery in our traditional markets, the continued strength of the Chinese economy and significantly higher commodity prices. Revenue up 32% to US$4,011 million. · Total costs increased 30% to US$2,344 million, due to higher unit costs of sale, volume growth and the costs for developing the businesses in Africa and Brazil. · Underlying EBITDA up 33%, to US$1,927 million; Underlying EBITDA margin steady at 48% (H1 2010: 47%). · Earnings per share up 30%, to US 91 cents. · Dividend per share of US 16 cents; a dividend payout ratio of 18%. · Strong balance sheet: gross available funds, US$1,600 million; net debt, US$2 million. · A substantial increase in the operating cash flow, to US$1,184 million.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Index.aspx?searchtype=3&words=enrc

Sounds like a very decent entry DAV13

the link http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201108170700135040M

Ari Hudaya, chief executive of Bumi plc said, "I am pleased to report that we have delivered a strong performance for the first half of the year. Despite high levels of rainfall in the first quarter, a significant amount of the shortfall was made up in the second quarter. Higher volumes in the second half, coupled with record coal prices, should ensure a strong overall performance for 2011. In terms of delivering on our strategy, I am pleased to report that we have made good progress in building a first rate management team in place at Bumi plc, focused on delivering operational excellence and enhancing shareholder value across the group. Our projected production growth is a clear differentiator in the industry, with PT Berau and PT Bumi Resources on track to meet their production targets over the medium term."

A clear strategy · A world class, FTSE premium listed, Indonesian thermal coal and base metals business · A simplified corporate structure, enhanced financial and corporate governance · Reduction of our cost of capital through debt reduction, lower interest cost and monetisation of non-core assets · Integration of coal assets - major drive to enhance operating efficiencies and realise synergies across the Group. Two major reviews announced: - Operational benchmarking study across all coal businesses including a review of contractor performance - Review of supply-chain across all businesses, to cover both existing operations and expansion programme · Going for Growth in thermal coal: major expansion phase underway · Developing a suite of high quality, Tier 1 base metal projects, through the acquisition of BRM · Ownership in PT Berau increased to 85%

Bumi plc announces operating profit of $62 million Financial highlights · Group operating profit1 of $62 million driven by record thermal coal prices · Underlying earnings2 of $54 million and underlying basic earnings per share of $0.362 · Net debt of $393 million, with a gearing ratio of 16.5% at 30 June 2011 · Capital expenditure for the six months to 30 June 2011 of $37 million Strong operational performance · Production volumes at PT Bumi Resources and PT Berau increased to 39 million tonnes3, despite high levels of rainfall3 · Production cost of sales at PT Bumi Resources of $45/tonne, driven by higher fuel input costs; PT Berau production costs of $35/tonne Industry leading growth · Total 2011 production volumes target of 86 million tonnes on track, up from 77 million tonnes3 - PT Bumi Resources set to grow to 66 million tonnes, from 60 million tonnes in 20103 - PT Berau on track to produce 20 million tonnes, from 17 million tonnes in 20103

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201108170700135042M

Ronald Duncan Chairman of @UKcommented "GeM is a landmark project from a number of different perspectives, its scale, speed to deploy and the fact that it will become self funding over the next two years. The GeM model has generated significant interest both in the UK and overseas and we look forward to showcasing its success, enabling the higher education sector to achieve significant cost savings through more efficient procurement. Our focus is now on signing up further suppliers into the Ecommerce Marketplace, driving additional revenues for @UK. "We are now seeking to replicate the success of GeM with a schools Ecommerce Marketplace, to be launched on 1st September, which we hope will help schools drive down the cost of procurement at a time when budgets are under extreme pressure." Paddy Walker, HE's GeM Programme Manager, said "GeM will easily and efficiently allow universities and colleges to buy products and services from contracted suppliers at the correct contract price. We recognise that @UK's staff have been very committed and have worked extremely hard to ensure that GeM went live in August."

GeM Live & Launch of Schools Ecommerce Marketplace @UK PLC (AIM:ATUK.L), the cloud ecommerce marketplace, is delighted to announce that GeM (the Generic eMarketplace for Higher Education and Further Education) has gone live, on schedule. The Company also announces today the launch of a Schools Ecommerce Marketplace which will take place on 1st September 2011. This success of the implementation of GeM is testament to the combined project team which was drawn from @UK, JISC Procureweb and the Higher Education sector. The timescales were testing for a national project with contract award in April 2011 and go live during August 2011. 162 of the major higher education suppliers have signed up and a range of suppliers are already live on the Ecommerce Marketplace, including Greiner Bio-One, Smith Scientific, Pacific Wave and Broadstock Office Furniture. GeM demonstrates that it is possible to deploy a system, which is planned to deliver major savings across a sector, quickly and effectively. The Ecommerce Marketplace and integrated contract management system holds all of the national and regional contracts for the HE sector and will be available for use by all institutions. @UK also announces today the launch of the Schools Ecommerce Marketplace which will be the first of its kind for the primary and secondary education sector. The Ecommerce Marketplace will be launched on 1st September 2011, with a number of major suppliers of goods to schools, confirmed for launch. The 30,000 schools purchase a similar volume of goods and services to Universities.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201108170700154906M