March 2008

Patience required by Aim micro companies

EDITOR'S NOTE

Patience required by Aim micro companies

Aim micro companies are going through a tough time under the current market conditions. Release bad news and a company’s shares will collapse. Release good news and the shares will still probably fall - just not as far. This is frustrating for a company’s management but it is something that happens with stock markets. Read more

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ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

Profile

PSG Solutions

Until recently PSG Solutions was effectively a conglomerate but it has decided to focus on its property search business. It has had a number of different names - the previous one was London & Boston and prior to that it was Cybertec Holdings. When it was Cybertec it planned to combine investment in technology businesses with separate property investments. It then changed its name to London & Boston and became a diversified holding company. One of the acquisitions made during that period was Property Search Group and this forms the core of the current group. Read more 'PSG Solutions'

Tags: psg solutions

Libra Natural Resources

Libra Natural Resources started out as a shell company which was going to invest in businesses in the natural resources sector and it subsequently evolved the strategy to investing in waste to energy businesses. It joined Aim on 11 March 2005 just before the London Stock Exchange tightened up the rules for small shells. It raised £1.26m at 3p a share. Initial investments included coal supplier King Coal, which was acquired by Aim-quoted Coal International, Prometheus Energy, a producer of natural gas from coal mines and landfill sites which subsequently joined Aim, and the Westwood Fibre Products business that has ended up forming the core wood pellet-to-energy business in North America. The other assets are being spun off to enable Libra to concentrate on the wood pellets business. Read more 'Libra Natural Resources'

Tags: libra natural resources

Features

Switching markets

When it was launched in 1995 Aim was seen as a feeder market for the main market of the London Stock Exchange. There have been 117 companies that have made that move, although more than two dozen of these have found their way back to Aim. There have been many more companies moving the other way. Read more 'Switching markets'

Tags: switching markets, safeland, james cropper

Time to consider the annual report

It is time for many companies to think about their annual report. The majority of companies have a December year end so they will be sending out their annual reports in March and April. This is an important opportunity to inform shareholders and other interested people about the business. However, many companies don’t take full advantage of it. Read more 'Time to consider the annual report'

Tags: annual report

Micro takeovers in 2007

Last year was a record for takeovers of Aim companies both in terms of numbers and value. The 75 companies taken over were valued at more than £10bn - four times the value of takeovers in 2006. Of course, a few large companies made up the majority of that value but there were also 26 Aim micro companies taken over. They were worth at total of just over £333m. Read more 'Micro takeovers in 2007'

Tags: takeovers

Companies

Private business growth

Business finance has become the main engine of the growth of Private and Commercial Finance. In the past its car finance business dominated its loans but business finance grew by 50% in the most recent six month period. Read more 'Private business growth'

Tags: finance

Global Marine Energy bid stalls

Oil services equipment manufacturer Global Marine Energy won’t become part of Hong Kong-listed EMER just yet. Read more 'Global Marine Energy bid stalls'

Tags: global marine energy, resources

Betbrokers moves ahead

Retail and wholesale betting brokerage Betbrokers is growing but it is still taking a long time to build up its revenues to a point where it will be making a profit. Read more 'Betbrokers moves ahead'

Tags: betbrokers

i-design signs up banks

Cash machine advertising company i-design has signed software licences with banks and building societies that operate nearly half of the cash machines operated by financial institutions in the UK. Read more 'i-design signs up banks'

Tags: i-design, media

Travelzest beats expectations

Travelzest is a consolidator in the niche travel market. The shares have been declining for nearly a year but profits and earnings per share are rising. Read more 'Travelzest beats expectations'

Tags: travelzest

Directors buy at Scotty

Video telecoms equipment designer Scotty reduced its operating loss in the year to July 2007. It still lost £2.18m at the operating level. Read more 'Directors buy at Scotty'

Tags: scotty

SpaceandPeople increases profits

Experiential marketing company Spaceandpeople increased its profits by onequarter to £564,000 in the year to October 2007. Read more 'SpaceandPeople increases profits'

Tags: spaceandpeople

Ethanol Investments

Cash shell Ethanol Investments is buying a portfolio of cleantech stakes from Libra, Ben Goldsmith and Maitland Investments, an Asia-based international private investment company. Read more 'Ethanol Investments'

Tags: ethanol investments

Mobestar

Guildford-based Mobestar was formed in 2004 and between then and the beginning of 2008 it raised £5.4m to develop its mobile technology. Product development is carried out in Bristol. It offers hosted services over mobile phones that can generate revenues for businesses. Mobestar’s products can be used on more than 9,000 different handsets and it can handle billing, different payment methods and messaging services. The individual products are broadly standardised but its main product is Mdate, a mobile dating product, and this is where the initial revenues will come from. Another product is Mspace, which is a mobile equivalent of MySpace. Mobestar prefers a model where it shares the revenues with its customer but some of the larger clients prefer a licence model. Read more 'Mobestar'

Tags: mobestar, mobile

Mobile Tornado

Mobile Tornado was formed when the company of the same name reversed into Aim-quoted shell TMT Group, in an all share deal that also involved a placing raising £3.25m gross (£2.64m net) at 16p a share. (The original shell floated on 16 July 2004 at 32p a share.) The company generates revenues from software and services it provides to mobile telecoms companies. Its speciality is instant messaging products such as push to talk, push to video and presence-based messaging. Read more 'Mobile Tornado'

Tags: mobile tornado, mobile

Media Corporation

London-based Media Corporation owns web portals and internet advertising operations. The web portals cover niche markets such as finance (CreditCardExpert.co.uk), TV listings (OnTheBox.com), travel (FlightComparison. co.uk), sports statistics (sport.co.uk) and gaming (Gambling.com). They generate revenues through advertising. The Eyeconomy advertising network operation represents 750 websites with more than 30m users each month. It has offices in London and Manchester and is opening another in New York. It offers ordinary internet adverts as well as newer formats such as video subsites. Read more 'Media Corporation'

Tags: media corporation

Goldplat

South Africa-based Goldplat’s main business is recovering gold and precious metals from processing mine waste, such as woodchips and grease. The South African business has been trading since 1979 and the current management took control in 2000. A similar operation has been started in Ghana. Management wants to use that base to expand into gold mining. They will be projects where gold has already been identified. The first potential project is in Kenya. Goldplat has formed a 74%-owned joint venture to acquire mining assets in South Africa. Read more 'Goldplat'

Tags: goldplat

Ormonde Mining

Ireland-based Ormonde Mining has two mining projects in pre-development in Spain. La Zarza is a copper, gold, zinc and silver project in the Iberian pyrite belt in Andalucia. The other is a tungsten project at Barruecopardo in Salamanca. It also has other gold exploration projects. Read more 'Ormonde Mining'

Tags: ormonde mining

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