News

Software solutions firm Anite said it has made a positive start to the current financial year and its order intake is up slightly on the same period last year

"Overall revenues have been characterised by some seasonality and for the four months ended 31 August 2008 are in line with the board's expectations," said the group.

Consumer electronics group Armour expects operating profit for the year ended 31 August to be in line with the current market expectations of £4.0m.

Dealings in Prestbury Holdings shares on AIM has been suspended after the financial services provider said it will not be able to release its interim results by the required date.

Australia-based airline Skywest increased passenger numbers by 1.47% in August month-on-month to 35,000. Skywest, which specialises in flying mine workers to remote mines, airline's load factor, said its load factor decreased by by 4.83% to 58.71% year on year not including scheduled charter passengers.

Management recruitment firm Hexagon Human Capital is to acquire Atlanta-based recruitment firm Winchester for a maximum consideration of $5.95m. Completion is scheduled to occur on or before 30 November.

Desalination plant specialist Modern Water says it is in the final stage of commissioning its new plant in Gibraltar and is seeing strong interest from other potential customers in the Middle East. Losses in the half-year to June rose slightly to £1.14m from £1.06m.

Underwriter Omega expects further progress after interim profits rose by 20% to $24.5m, with the group adding it has modest exposure to the market losses to date in 2008 and are delivering a very strong set of underwriting results. Premium income rose 7% to $185.9m with the combined ratio weakening slightly to 84%.The interim dividend rises to 10.3c from 7.7c.

Titanium Resources net losses rose to $20.2m in the half year to June from $5.6m. Shares in the group are still suspended following the capsize in July of its floating dredge D2 at the Sierra Rutile Mine, Titanium says it has been advised the dredge D2 is capable of being brought back into production and will focus on lowering costs and dry mining.

Uranium and copper miner Vane Minerals increased revenues by over 50% to £1.1m in the six months to June with losses down slightly to £729,000 from £968,000. Vane signed a joint venture agreement with Uranium One covering the south rim of the Colorado Plateau Breccia Pipe District last week and says in Paraguay drilling is expected to commence in September on several gold-copper anomalies identified on the 22,600-hectare Ibabo Concession.

Satellite operator Avanti Communications is teaming up with Italy's largest consortium of VSAT suppliers and installers to deliver broadband internet access to rural areas of Italy.

The Italian consortium CO.NA has entered into a partnership with Avanti to pitch for rural broadband projects funded by the Italian regions. The European Commission is making €1.8bn of funds available to encourage broadband take-up in Italy.

AIM-listed oil and gas company Gulfsands Petroleum said production at its Khurbet East early production facility now exceeds 11,500 barrels of oil per day.

All five wells at the facility are now online and producing at better levels than expected. Total field production to date has climbed above 260,000 barrels.

Falkland Island Holdings said its three operating businesses have continued to trade satisfactorily, adding that the outlook for the current year remains positive.

"Trading is progressing well, the balance sheet remains strong and I am confident of the outlook for our interim results which we will report in December," said chairman David Hudd.

Healthcare sector focused IT solutions provider System C Healthcare beat expectations as pre-tax profits for the year to 31 May rose to £3.3m from £1.3m the previous year on revenue that climbed 34% to £18.1m.

In May, the company predicted pre-tax profits of £3.2m.

Oil and gas explorer and producer Elixir Petroleum said it had down-manned its Hercules 152 rig in the Mexican Gulf due to the approach of Hurricane Ike. The weather system is now being closely watched, it added.

Brady, the commodity trading software group, saw interim pre-tax profit rise 51% to £218,000 on revenue that was almost flat at £2.47m from £2.54m before. The group added that it is confident of meeting its financial expectations for the full year.

Mobile internet firm Bango said it is seeing increasing use of mobile internet in the US, as evidenced by a four-fold increase in the monthly number of WAP transactions being processed compared with 3 months ago.