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ARENA LEISURE PLC (ARE.LN), a U.K. horseracing group, Wednesday
said it has signed a GBP106 million deal with Satellite Information
Services (SIS) Limited for the coverage of horse racing content
from all of its seven racecourses.
Arena said the five year deal will replace its current
arrangement with BAGS, which ends Dec. 31 2011.
The company said its new revenues will nearly double the GBP55
million it gets from its deal with BAGS.
Arena said it will receive an initial advanced payment of
GBP12.5 million from SIS.
At 1430 GMT, Arena Leisure shares +3 pence, or 13%, at 26
pence.
CONNAUGHT PLC (CNT.LN) said it will raise GBP12.1 million to
fund future acquisitions after it announced two new bolt-on
acquisitions to its compliance business which will give it national
coverage.
The U.K. support services firm said it would look to increase
its market share in the compliance sector.
"We can now position Connaught as a one-stop shop across the
U.K. for compliance customers," CEO Mark Davies told Dow Jones
Newswires.
Last week, Connaught announced a recommended offer for
environmental services business, Fountains PLC (FNT.LN), said it
has bought Fire (International) Ltd. and Igrox Ltd. for a total of
around GBP15.9 million.
At 1430 GMT, shares +11.25 pence, or 3%, at 378.25 pence.
GALIFORM PLC (GFRM.LN), a kitchen maker, posted a
better-than-expected set of first-half results, and said sales are
falling at a slower rate in its second half.
The owner of Howden Joinery, a trade supplier of kitchen and
joinery products to builders, posted a pretax profit for the 24
weeks to June 13 of GBP4.7 million from GBP21.6 million a year
earlier.
Galiform said if its current performance is sustained during the
coming months then it will consider opening "a small number" of new
depots.
At 1430 GMT, shares +7.25 pence, or 19%, at 44.75 pence.
ZETAR PLC (ZTR.LN) Wednesday said it is in talks to supply
products to the recently launched online version of high-street
retailer Woolworths.
The U.K confectionery and snack foods company was a major
supplier to Woolworths PLC (WLW.LN) before the chain collapsed in
January, leading to a bad debt charge of GBP1 million for
Zetar.
"We aren't supplying Woolworths.co.uk at the moment but we're in
conversation with them," Chief Executive Ian Blackburn told Dow
Jones Newswires Wednesday.
At 1430 GMT, shares +6 pence, or 3.7%, at 170.5 pence.
DXS LTD. and HORIZON DISCOVERY LTD, two U.K. diagnostics
companies, said they teamed up to develop better tests for a gene
which can affect how people respond to certain cancer
medications.
Manchester, England-based DxS and Cambridge, England-based
Horizon said they entered a strategic collaboration focused on
DxS's Therascreen test for K-RAS mutation.
K-RAS is a gene that affects how people respond to drugs like
ImClone Systems Inc.'s (IMCL) and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s (BMY)
Erbitux and Amgen Inc.'s (AMGN) Vectibix.
ITHACA ENERGY INC. (IAE.V) Wednesday said production from the
Jacky field in the North Sea has hit 11,000 barrels of oil a day,
well ahead of initial estimates of 7,500 barrels a day.
Jacky started production April 6 and flowed at rates of 8,800
barrels a day. Since then a pump has been activated and the
production increased to its current level, Ithaca said.
Average June production was 9,300 barrels of oil a day, it
added.
At 1430 GMT, London-traded shares +3.5 pence, or 10%, at 38
pence.
SINCLAIR PHARMA PLC (SPH.LN) said it expects fiscal 2009 revenue
to decline on the year because of destocking by drug
wholesalers.
The pharmaceutical company said wholesalers have been working
through their stocks rather than order new medicines because of
cash constraints.
It expects revenue for the year to June 30 to total GBP29.7
million, a 2% decline on fiscal 2008's GBP30.3 million.
Analysts were forecasting revenue of between GBP30.7 million and
GBP35.8 million.
At 1430 GMT, shares -2 pence, or 7.7%, at 24 pence.
STOBART GROUP LTD. (STOB.LN), a logistics company, said its
subsidiary Eddie Stobart has gained a distribution contract with
U.K. supermarket giant Tesco PLC (TSCO.LN) worth around GBP25
million a year.
At 1430 GMT, shares +1.75 pence, or 1.73%, at 102.75 pence.
AORTECH INTERNATIONAL PLC (AOR.LN) reported a fiscal year pretax
loss at the same level as a year earlier, as cost savings helped
offset slightly lower revenue.
At 1430 GMT, shares -10 pence, or 6.78%, at 137.5 pence.
IDATECH PLC (IDA.LN) said it received an order for 30 of its
ElectraGen hydrogen fuel cell systems from a German customer.
Financial terms weren't disclosed.
At 1430 GMT, shares flat at 91.5 pence.
FTSE AIM -0.21%
FTSE Small Cap -0.22%
-By Hannah Benjamin, Jason Douglas & Rachael Gormley, Dow
Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9298; uksmallcaps@dowjones.com
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