News

Michelmersh Brick said results for the year to 31 December are expected to be in line with current forecasts.

The group added that trading in 2008 remained satisfactory.

"While industry demand for brick products has reduced due to wet weather conditions and a slowdown in the house building market, Michelmersh has benefited from significant increases in landfill rates and from the continuing appreciation of its property assets," it said in a short statement.

Palm oil producer Anglo-Eastern Plantations expects profit for 2007 to show a 'very significant' improvement over 2006.

The group added that it has bought a further 2,000ha of land close to its new oil palm development at Labuhan Bilik in North Sumatra for $0.6m, bringing the plantable area to over 6,000ha.

Planting of the existing estate, which has reached 2,500ha, is proceeding satisfactorily and should be complete by the end of 2009, Anglo-Eastern added.

Siteserv rallied after it conditionally agreed to acquire UK construction support services group Deborah Services for £43.2m in cash and shares.

Under the terms of the deal, Siteserv will pay £40.2m in cash with the remainder being satisfied through the issue of 10m shares at £0.30, which will be subject to a 12 month lock-up.

"The acquisition is consistent with our stated strategy of continuing to grow by acquisition and particularly continuing to acquire businesses which are market leaders and which have strong management in place," said chief executive Brian Harvey.

Bede expects to report billings of £1.75m in the fourth quarter and said it is still in takeover talks.

Order intake for the quarter was below plan at £1.1m and the order book stands at £1.15m. The group's net cash position worsened by about £300,000 during the quarter and at 31 December net borrowings stood at around £1.1m.

"The board continues to review its strategic options to address the going concern matters referred to in the third quarter statement and reports that the company continues to be in discussions that may or may not lead to an offer being made for the company," said the group.

DNA sequencing and genotyping services provider Medical Solutions said it is implementing a new technology platform at its Nottingham laboratory that will help to broaden its offering and increase efficiencies.

The group said it will become the UK's first commercial service provider for these systems, which it will be sourcing from Illumina.

Mining firm Weatherly announced the sale of its blast furnace and reverb slag dumps to Emerging Metals for a total consideration worth around £5.7m, payable in two tranches over 24 months in cash, shares and options.

Shares in Visonic gained on news that the security systems maker has signed a new two year supply contract worth about $10m with Scandinavian security company Sector Alarm.

Digital surveillance group UniVision has won a £250,000 contract with the Hong Kong Housing Authority.