News

Shares in North Midland took a knock after the construction firm said full-year profits will be below expectations due to losses on two contracts within the civil engineering division.

The group said the final outcome of these contracts is uncertain, but added that the problems are isolated and non-recurring. North Midland warned in September that full year may fall below expectations.

IT solution provider Electronic Data Processing reported a 57% rise in pre-tax profit and said it looks forward with confidence. Pre-tax profit rose to £700,000 in the year to 30 September from £446,000 last time on turnover up 5% to £6.6m. The final dividend stands at 2p compared to 1.9p last year.

"The market sector that the group addresses remains very competitive," said chairman Michael Heller. "However, we are seeing increased demand for our software products and hosting services which, in turn, will translate into increased professional services revenues."

Empyrean Energy is recovering small quantities of gas and condensate together with fracture stimulation fluids and work fluids at its Sugarloaf-1 Well in Texas.

The AIM-listed energy explorer said it will be shutting the well in for a seven day pressure build up test. Last month, Empyrean surged ahead on reports of a gas find at the TCEI JV Block A-3 well in Sugarloaf Block A in Texas.

Oil service group GETECH has won a further licence to provide aeromagnetic data of the Russian Arctic Shelf to a major oil company at a price close to £900,000.

"While we had anticipated a sale this year, the nature of these large licences means there was no certainty as to a successful close or the timing and we are very pleased to be able to confirm it now," said non-executive chairman Peter Stephens. "We continue to look forward to future trading with confidence," he added.

Ukraine food group Ukrproduct said trading is ahead of expectations with expected pre-tax profit for the year likely to reach £3m. Sales of the group's consumer products (cheeses and butter) progressed to plan with sales of a particular product, smoked sausage cheese, exceeding earlier projections for the period. Sales of bulk products (milk powders) were also ahead of budget.