News

ReGen Therapeutics narrowed first half pre-tax losses to £1.12m compared to £1.6m last time. The roll out of the group's nutraceutical product Colostrinin is continuing in line with expectations.

US-based biopharmaceutical company Medgenics said it is not aware of any operational reason for the recent decline in its share price. The company confirms that it remains on track with the ongoing Phase I/II Clinical trials.
Ai Claims Solutions generated a pre-tax profit of £2.05m in the year ended 30 June from £1.54m last time on revenue up 19% to £40.8m. "Despite the hostile economic climate we believe we can continue to make further progress in the coming year," said the group.

Property development and investment group Hawtin reported a drop in first half pre-tax profit to £1.1m from £1.9m last time but said it believes that opportunities to add value through prudent purchases will arise.

Mobile content provider Mobile Streams saw pre-tax losses widen to £1.3m in the first half from a loss of £547,000 last time.

Rambler Media, the Russian internet web portal, saw profit before tax and discontinued operations for the half year fell to $11.7m compared with $39.4m previously and said it is moving away from the acquisition of UK risk carriers with more attention being given to the US and Continental Europe.

Falkland Oil & Gas says its partner BHP Billiton is currently reviewing a number of potential rig options and a drilling programme will commence in the second half of 2009. It is likely that Loligo will be one of the prospects tested in the initial drilling programme, Falkland added. Losses for the half year to June rose to £1.18m, from £632,000.

Interactive video software group i-point media posted a loss of £792,000 in the year to June, up from £575,000 this time last year. Sales fell to £446,000 from £562,000. Increased sales, marketing and R&D costs got the blame.

i-point says the remainder of the year rests on contracts expected to be signed in the fourth quarter. Several trials with Ericsson are ongoing and the directors believe that several projects through Ericsson will materialise during the second half of 2008.

Bulgarian Land posted an underlying interim profit before taxation of £507,000 compared with a loss of £513,000, including £472,000 fees income from its first joint venture. After a £2.1m net imputed interest on deferred payments for land, there was a loss before tax of £1.575m (2007 restated: £1.748m loss). NAV dipped to 75p from 78p.

Bulgarian Land is currently conducting a review of its business with a view to returning some capital to shareholders after discussions with its main shareholders,CLS and Laxey Partners.

Horizonte Minerals increased losses to £276,000, up from £99,000 in the half -year to June. Last month, Horizonte announced a "significant" new laterite nickel discovery at its Lontra project in northern Brazil.

Imaging software specialist Seeing Machines posted maiden annual profits of A$327,000, compared with a loss of A$467,000, as sales at its faceLAB and DSS businesses picked up strongly. Revenues overall rose by 55% to A$4.4m.

Seeing, which has developed software with face-tracking capabilities for use in video games and real-time avatar animation in virtual worlds, added it expects further strong sales of faceLAB and the DSS this year and from the launch of faceAPI, its face-tracking software, and the TrueField Analyzer.

M2M wireless software developer Telit posted higher losses in the half-year to June despite sales jumping by 32% to €30.1m. Losses rose to €3.5m from a loss of €1.2m. "The outlook for the rest of 2008 and the future looks positive for Telit, despite the global economic downturn and fluctuating foreign exchange rates that are fuelling the decrease in unit prices," Telit said.

Acquisitions and cost-cutting measures helped marketing and advertising group Mission Marketing report a more than 60% jump in pre-tax profits.

Profit before tax in the six months to June 30 jumped to £4.9m from £3m as revenue climbed to £57.6m from £39.7m.

Mission was helped by the contribution of April-Six and thinkBDW, acquired in the first half of 2007. The company also benefited from shifting its focus from expanding rapidly through acquisitions to integrating previous acquisitions.

German real estate group Summit Germany saw a 2.4% fall in the value of its portfolio to €23m and fell into pre-tax losses of £16,968m in the six months to 30 June, from profit of €11m in the same period a year ago.