News

Shares in clothing company Marchpole have been suspended from trading on AIM pending clarification of its financial position.

“The board is taking all appropriate measures to deal with the current challenging economic environment and is maintaining a regular dialogue with the company's bankers, in common with most other businesses exposed to the retail sector,” said the group.

Earlier this month Marchpole warned trading conditions remained “extremely difficult” and that it is maintaining a regular dialogue with its bankers.

Shares in Red24 rallied after the personal security and training group reported a maiden pre-tax profit of £199,000 in the six month ended 30 September compared to a loss of £306,000 last time. Revenue increased by 13% to £1.61m.

Mortgage-backed securities investor Prodesse Investment saw net asset value per share slide to $6.62 at the end of the third quarter of 2008 from $6.99 at the end of the second quarter.

Ronald Kazel, managing director of Prodesse’s investment manager, said the third quarter had been of historic import.

“Of all the events, perhaps the two most significant for Prodesse are the affirmation of the US government's role as the backstop of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the massive and co-ordinated global effort by government finance ministers and central banks to support the world's financial institutions and facilitate liquidity and credit flows,” Kazel said.

“Uncertainty and volatility still remain, but we believe that as the combination of these efforts takes hold in the marketplace, Prodesse's portfolio should benefit,” Kazel added.

A couple of big orders have whacked up sales revenue at product development software specialist Sopheon in the second half of the year.

The company said that although the number of transactions recorded in the second half of this year are down on the corresponding period of last year, the presence of two big orders on the books has helped push revenues 60% higher than a year ago.

Revenue visibility for the full year is £8.1m, compared with £5.8m at the same stage in 2007. The company has a number of sales prospects on the go and is confident of adding to the revenue visibility before the year is out.