Member Info for mulledwine

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=20110616070000Z7563

Howdy Xanthamgum - hows it going - its a bit of a nightmare trying to earn a penny in this game just now!

JP Morgan reiterates overweight on Laird, target price 170p.

UBS reiterates buy on Smiths Group, target price reiterated at 1600p

Credit Suisse neutral on Carnival, target price 2440p

Tissue Regenix presents promising follow-up data on dCELL® Vascular Patch at leading US conference YORK, 16 June, 2011 - Tissue Regenix, the regenerative medical device company, announces that positive follow-up results of an on-going clinical evaluation of dCELL® Vascular Patch in the surgical repair of peripheral arteries to remove atherosclerotic blockages and improve blood flow, will be presented today during a poster session at the 2011 Vascular Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois. Presented by the Society for Vascular Surgery, the Vascular Annual Meeting is the leading annual meeting on vascular health. Antony Odell, Tissue Regenix Managing Director, said: "The acceptance of our poster at the premier global meeting for vascular health professionals is an example of the growing clinical interest in dCELL® Vascular Patch." The promising interim data announced earlier this year demonstrated that, after a year, the dCELL® Vascular Patch demonstrates similar behaviour to patients' own veins, with no significant adverse effects. dCELL® Vascular Patch received European CE Mark Approval in 2010 for vascular repair.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201106160700114339I

WS Atkins beats raised expectations Date: Thursday 16 Jun 2011 LONDON (ShareCast) - Design and engineering consultancy WS Atkins topped revenue and profit expectations in what it described as a transformational year for the company. Revenue in the year ended 31 March rose 12.7% to £1,564m from £1,388m the year before, marginally ahead of market consensus of £1.558m. Underlying profit before tax climbed 9.4% to £102.7m from £93.9m a year earlier. The market had been expecting a figure of around £96.14m. "As reported" profit before tax slipped 5.8% to £91.0m from £96.6m in the preceding year. Underlying operating profit improved to £118.7m from £110.4m the year before, but the underlying operating margin eased to 7.6% from 8.0%. Work in hand at the start of the new financial year represented 55% of budgeted revenue for the full year. At the same stage in 2010, the figure was 54%. The company said the outlook for the current year remains unchanged and in line with market expectations. A final dividend of 19.5p has been recommended, taking the full-year total to 29.0p, up 5.5% on the 27.5p paid the year before.

US rental growth lifts Ashtead Date: Thursday 16 Jun 2011 LONDON (ShareCast) - Plant hire group Ashtead reported full year pre-tax profit in line with expectations and said it is confident demand for rentals will provide further growth. Pre-tax profit rose to £31m for the year to the end of April compared to £5m in 2010, after a 10% increase in revenue from US rental operations. Analysts had predicted pre-tax profit of £30.7m. Ashtead said the increasing trend of contractors renting out equipment rather than buying it had boosted results. Its US business saw growth in fleet and prices and had a first-time contribution from Empire Scaffold, which it bought at the start of 2011. Looking ahead chief executive Geoff Drabble said, "We remain cautious over the outlook for end construction markets in the short term, particularly in the UK. However, we continue to benefit from the structural shift to rental, market share gains and the improvements we have established in all key areas of our business." A final dividend of 2.07p has been recommended, making 3p for the year compared to 2.9p in 2010.

EasyJet to fly from Stobart's Southend Airport Date: Thursday 16 Jun 2011 LONDON (ShareCast) - Budget airline easyJet is to start operating flights from Southend Airport in Essex next year, the airport’s owner, logistics firm Stobart, has announced. The flights will start in April, ahead of the London Olympics, and will begin flying to about 10 destinations including Barcelona and Ibiza in Spain and Faro in Portugal. Easyjet will base three planes at the airport and is expected to fly about 800,000 passengers a year, which will see the annual number of people who pass through the airport soaring to nearly 1m. Stobart said it is at an advanced stage of its investment plan for the airport. “The airport offers reduced flight times, a fast terminal experience and a connecting station with up to 8 trains an hour travelling into London in around 50 minutes,” the company said. “In addition, LSA is in a prime location to service the London Olympics in 2012 with a fast, direct train service to Stratford and the Olympic stadium.” The airport has its own railway station which is a 53-minute journey from London Liverpool Street, Stobart said. Southend Airport currently operates flights to Jersey and to Galway and Waterford in Ireland. --- RG

CONT Cadogan and Eni are also working together to identify other upstream opportunities in Ukraine and to facilitate this, we recently entered into a co-operation agreement. With regard to our other six assets, on our Pirkovska asset in east Ukraine a workover is planned later this year on the Pirkovska - 1 well. In west Ukraine, we also have several work programmes underway, for example on Bitlyanska, the new 2D seismic data is being interpreted and integrated with existing data to develop a future work plan and farm out campaign for this asset. On our Monastreyska licence we are developing a workover over and frac programme for the Blazhiv - 1 oil well and are considering the acquisition of further wells on this minor field. Gas production continues on our Debeslavetska and Cheremkivska licences, where we are also planning to acquire a 2D seismic programme in 2011. Finally on our Slobodo Rungurska asset we are seeking an extension to the licence to enable the drilling of a deeper prospect below the abandoned shallow field that has produced oil since the 1780's - one of the world's oldest oilfields. Negotiations with Global Process System continue over rescheduling the delayed $10 million payment due to the Company under a settlement agreement. The Company is also reviewing other possible arrangements to recover the cash value of the plant that it owns in 2011. In summary the Company has an extremely active period ahead with work programmes committed across the scope of our licences. I have every confidence that the progress made in the past year, coupled with the transaction with Eni, will prove transformational in the fortunes of the Company."

At the Annual General Meeting scheduled for 2pm on Thursday 16 June Simon Duffy, Chairman, will update shareholders as follows: "Since the announcement of the anticipated investment in two of our east Ukraine assets by ENI S.p.A, ("Eni"), the major integrated Italian energy company, good progress has been made in fulfilling the conditions precedent for completion of the transaction. The Ukraine Anti Monopoly Commission has given approval for the transaction to proceed and the internal restructuring necessary has been largely completed. In addition a circular has been issued to shareholders convening a General Meeting, which will follow the AGM later today, at which the Board is seeking approval of the transaction. This transaction should complete in early July. In line with our agreement, Eni has become progressively more involved in line with the increase in operational activity and we are in the process of seconding Eni personnel into our organisation. Good progress has been made on the ground on our joint projects. At our Pokrovska asset, a drilling and services contract has been awarded to Saipem S.p.A to deepen the Pokrovska - 1 well, which was suspended in December 2010. Site preparation is complete, with drilling operations scheduled to start in July. It is anticipated that the drilling and preliminary testing programme will be completed by the end of Q3 2011, with an extended testing programme to follow. After this well, the rig will move to the Pokrovska - 2 location to sidetrack the existing well or to drill a new well. Our Zagoranska asset is also included in the Eni agreement and a programme has commenced to workover several of the recently acquired wells on this field. A suitable rig has been identified and site preparations on Zagoranska -1 location are well advanced and rig operations are scheduled to start in July.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=20110616070000P941D

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201106160700095304I

Ashtead's chief executive, Geoff Drabble, commented "We enjoyed an encouraging year where our focus on gaining market share and improving yields resulted in strong growth in Group profits. The performance of Sunbelt in the US was particularly pleasing with good momentum established that has carried into the new financial year with sustainable improvements in both fleet on rent and yield. Against a backdrop of still challenging end construction markets we are clearly benefitting from both the structural change in the US rental market and self help from the programmes we initiated during the downturn. In the UK, performance also improved in the second half and we delivered year on year profit growth. Looking forward we remain cautious over the outlook for end construction markets in the short term, particularly in the UK. However, we continue to benefit from the structural shift to rental, market share gains and the improvements we have established in all key areas of our business. Together with our balance sheet strength and strong market positions, this makes us confident of another year of good progress."

Highlights · Group pre-tax profits² of £31m (2010: £5m) · Sunbelt's rental revenue up 10%; operating profit up 39% to $162m (2010: $117m) · A-Plant's rental revenue up 1% with operating profit of £2.7m (2010: £1.8m) · Capital expenditure increased to £225m (2010: £63m); £325m planned for 2011/12 · Balance sheet remains strong and our debt well structured with five year average maturities, net debt of £776m (30 April 2010: £829m) and leverage of 2.7 times EBITDA (2010: 3.2 times) · Proposed final dividend of 2.07p making 3.0p for the year (2010: 2.9p)

AVATION PLC (the "Company") Avation PLC lead investor in lease of jet aircraft to Skywest The Company is pleased to announce its participation, as lead investor, in a consortium group of financiers to make an operating lease loan facility of USD 2,550,000 available to a subsidiary of the Singaporean registered company Skywest Limited ("Skywest"). The purpose of which is to acquire one Fokker 100 aircraft for operation by Skywest in Australia. Skywest intends the aircraft to be leased to and operated by its subsidiary, the Australian airline Skywest Airlines Pty Ltd, under an operating lease for a period of 60 months. The directors believe that the transaction represents an excellent opportunity for the Company to achieve a superior return on its capital in an otherwise difficult market, especially given the short term of the loan and quality of the lessee, the Skywest Group. The directors take responsibility for the contents of this announcement.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=20110616070003M2872

We are pleased to report that Atkins has again delivered good results in a challenging economic environment. This was a transformational year for the Group, in which we proved our strategy is working. We balanced our geographic footprint with a North American acquisition and continued to maintain our focus on quality and agility. We are now well positioned for growth and our outlook for the current year is unchanged. Allan Cook CBE Chairman

HIGHLIGHTS · Underlying operating profit up 7.5% and underlying operating margin at 7.6% (2010: 8.0%). · Integration of strategic acquisition in North America has progressed well and the business is performing in line with our expectations, with margin improvement to 4.6%. · Successful debt recovery and diversification into infrastructure in the Middle East delivered regional profits up 70%. · Good work in hand at the start of the year, 55% of budgeted revenue (2010:54%). · Dividend increased by 5.5% reflecting the Board's confidence in the Group's prospects. · Outlook for the current year remains unchanged and in line with market expectations.