News

Online electronic trading platform business FFastFill has made an offer to buy Exchange Systems Technology (EST) for up to £4.8m in a cash and stock deal.

It will also raise approximately £5.5m by way of a placing.

The group also announced its year-end results, slashing pre-tax losses to £1.1m compared to a loss of £3.14m previously. Sales were up by 27.6% to £6.1m.

"The board is confident that the company will continue to grow organically and the growth will be accelerated by acquisition of EST," said the group.

Mobile content distributor Vimio said it expects post-tax losses for the year ended 31 December 2006 to be "significantly in excess of market expectations."

The group said this is due to the deferment of €1.13m of revenue to the current year and due to a number of debt repayments that are still outstanding.

Preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2006 will be released on or before 15 June 2007, it added.

Toledo Mining said it believes its mineral production sharing agreement (MPSA) application, covering the 288 hectare Berong Project, will be processed shortly by the Philippines government.

This MPSA area will also cover the current Direct Shipping Operations. The group said it also has full confidence that other MPSA areas will be processed before the end of 2007.

Franchised printing retail outlets Printing.com said momentum is continuing to build despite a marginally lower than expected growth rate.

Pre-tax profit increased slightly to £2.3m compared to £2.2m last year on turnover of £12.1m up from £11.9m in 2006. Total retail sales were up by 17% to £21.3m.

"The increase in total retail sales is not reflected in the turnover (...), due to the increased number of stores now under franchised ownership whereby only the 'wholesale' component of each printing order is counted towards your company's turnover," the group added.

Total dividend for the year came in at 2.5p, up from 1.75p last time.

Newspaper distributor Dawson Holdings said results for the period are in line with expectations. Pre-tax profit for the half-year narrowed to £4.5m from £7.6m previously on revenue that rose 11% to £381.3m.

"We have made good progress after a difficult second half of 2006 in tough trading conditions and are pleased with the steps taken towards our strategic goals," said chief executive Peter Harris.

Communications network manager Vanco said it expects to meet market expectations for the year ending 31 January 2008.

Free cash flow for the six months ending 31 July 2007 is expected to be better than in the six months ended 31 July 2006.

"There is an increased focus on the financial profile of new contracts and on improving free cash flow, which the group expects to be neutral to slightly positive for the full year," it added.

Optical electronics specialist Gooch and Housego said half-year pre-tax profit increased by 28%, adding that it expects growing demand for its products in the future.

Pre-tax profit rose to £3.12m compared to £2.43m last time on turnover up 8% to £13.63m.

"We have made a solid start to the year with particularly good progress in the development of our new facilities, infrastructure and products," said chief executive Gareth Jones.

The interim dividend increased by 7% to 1.5p.