News

Forum Energy said Russell Harvey has resigned from his role as chief executive officer. Alan Henderson will assume the role of acting chief executive officer until a permanent appointment is made.

The group also said Monte Oro Resources will acquire a 30% participating interest in GSEC101 from Forum for $1.7m.

NHS-focused recruitment specialist Healthcare Locums said it has started 2008 with strong trading in all of its divisions, which it expects will continue throughout the year.

"I am pleased to report that 2007 was a successful year for HCL. All of management's key targets and objectives were met or exceeded," said the group.

"All acquisitions were integrated in the period, with the focus in the second half being to deliver organic like-for-like growth in each of HCL's three staffing divisions," it added.

Autologic's chairman Reg Heath said in today's AGM statement that the specialist car distributor is currently trading in line with management expectations.

Shares in Murchison fell heavily after it said nuclear energy conglomerate Areva would take a 15% stake in the Australian uranium explorer as part of a deal involving cooperation in Mauritania.

The first 5% of Areva's stake will be issued through a placement of shares 19m shares at A$0.135 each. The placing price is equal to the 8-week average for Murchison's shares.

A further 39.9m shares will be issued to Areva as payment for access to its geological database covering the West African country and the use of its equipment, technical services and personnel to assist in accelerating Murchison's current exploration programs.

Shares in property management group HML Holdings moved up after pre-tax profits for the year to 31 March climbed to £312,000 from £229,000 on revenues that rose to £7.5m from £5.8m.

The company said new business enquiries from existing blocks of flats continued to improve, helping to offset slowing new build business in line with the weaker residential development market.

Oil and gas group Island Gas Resources is placing 3.2m shares at a price of 65p per share to raise approximately £2.1m. Proceeds of the placing will be used to fund working capital requirements to secure drilling and exploration services.

Screen Technology said 2007 proved to be a difficult year with sales substantially below expectations. Revenue fell to £34,000 from £642,000 last year but pre-tax losses narrowed to £3.3m from £4.7m.

"The group's situation has improved significantly in 2008 with a restructuring of the group's balance sheet and a new major shareholder," it said.

Braveheart, the technology commercialisation and investment management company, swung to a pre-tax profit of £106,000 in the year ended 31 March compared to a loss of £164,000 last time. Revenue increased 22% to £659,000.

Entertainment One reported a maiden pre-tax loss of £7.7m in the period ended 31 March on revenue of £264.4m.

Eurasia Mining narrowed full-year pre-tax losses to £884,948 from £1.02m last time. "During 2007, Eurasia has made solid progress on its platinum projects, with drilling confirming earlier indications of economic grades on two of our projects on the Kola Peninsula in north-west Russia," said chairman Michael Martineau.

Zambia-focused miner Kiwara saw full-year pre-tax losses widen to £146,288 from £71,742 as administration expenses rose to £801,165 from £89,274 last year.