Hybridan Small Cap Wrap - Music to the ears from Symphony, Next Fifteen Communication & 3D Diagnostics carries its products into new territories

DDD (LON:DDD) (5.25p / £8.95m)

3D Diagnostics, which owns the protected rights to a technology platform with a number of significant potential commercial products, announced a distribution agreement with Wisdom International Medical Science and Technology Co. Ltd for China. The Company expects Wisdom to complete the regulatory approval process for sale of the CarieScan PRO later this year, with Wisdom having considerable experience in handling such a process- it is a subsidiary of Beijing Focus, which is one of the top 5 dental distributors in China focusing on imported technology products. Prospectively, this is a significant agreement since dental practitioners have increased more than ten-fold in the last 25 years to 60,000, with growth expected to continue in line with development of the Chinese economy.

AFC Energy (LON:AFC) (57.25p / £99.24m)

AFC Energy, a developer of alkaline fuel cells, has announced the signing of a commercial Memorandum of Understanding with John Lewis Partnership (JLP) to evaluate the economic potential of using its fuel cell system to generate low carbon emission electricity for Waitrose supermarkets and John Lewis stores. Following the evaluation, JLP intends to order and demonstrate AFC’s fuel cell system as part of an integrated low carbon energy generation at a Waitrose store.

 

Akers Biosciences (LON:AKR) (4.38p/ £7.38m)

Akers, the AIM listed provider of rapid diagnostic solutions for the point-of-care testing process, this week reported results for the year ended 31 December 2010. The company is also a pioneer in disposable breath condensate technology where there are a variety of wellness- and disease- predicting biomarkers present in an exhaled breath sample. Revenues increased by 72 per cent. to $3.1m (2009: $1.8m) with losses on an EBITDA basis cut by 84% to $649,000 (2009: $4.1m). Year end cash was down to $423, 000 but this was subsequently increased by a £2.16m placing in January 2011. The Company reported that 2010 was a very productive year for its new product pipeline and that moving in to 2011; it is well positioned to complete the clinical development of a number of novel rapid diagnostic testing solutions and introduce these products into high value markets, towards the end of the year and beyond.

Amur Minerals (LON:AMC) (11.88p / £29.73m)*

AIM listed exploration and development resource Company focused on Far East Russia, announced that it has completed logistical preparations and re-stocking at its Kun-Manie nickel copper sulphide project site located in Amur Oblast. In preparation for the 2011 exploration field season, the Company completed the construction of an ice road from its Gorney base camp on the Baikal Amur rail system to the Kun-Manie project site.  Amur has defined a JORC Resource of over 340,000 tonnes of nickel and 95,000 tonnes of copper at Kun Manie. The exploration programme will focus on defining new drill targets located among and adjacent to the three deposits that presently contain drilled resources. The drill targets all lie within the area that the Company has defined for a mining licence. Reconnaissance exploration work indicates there is substantial potential to expand the resources. In early 2010, Amur submitted its application for a mining licence.  Presently, comments have been received from all agencies except the Ministry of Economic Development. Once MED comments are completed and delivered to Rosnedra, it will compile the draft mining licence. On a State level, discussions have been held with key ministerial officials in the Amur Oblast as well as with representatives of the governor of Amur. Robin Young, CEO Amur Minerals Corporation, stated: "We have filed for our mining licence application and are working with key individuals and groups to improve the investment environment for our project as well as those related to other foreign investors working within Russia. We will continue to work with the Russian Federation agencies and will continue to provide input and insight to assist in removing any regulatory constraints related to our project. The Board remains confident that we will ultimately obtain the mining licence at Kun-Manie."

Arian Silver (LON:AGQ) (43.25p / £130.18m)

Arian Silver Corporation, a silver E&D and production Company with a focus on projects in the silver belt of Mexico, reported an update on operational activities at its 100 per cent owned San Jose Property in Zacatecas State, Mexico. Highlights include a laboratory installed and operational at San Jose which will significantly speed up the analysis of their exploration samples. An increase in milling efficiency due to the addition of impact crushe and there has been approximately 200 tonnes of silver bearing concentrate produced so far. Much progress is occurring at Arian, and we can look forward to future signs of growth.

Atlantic Coal (LON:ATC) (0.78p / £29.98m)

Atlantic Coal, the open cast coal production and processing company with activities in Pennsylvania, USA, has reported that during the quarter ended March 31^st, it mined 120,850 tons of run-of-mines (ROM) coal from the Stockton Colliery and removed 658,785 bank cubic yards of overburden. 62,000 tons of ROM coal was washed which produced 28,376 tons of clean coal. Sales for the quarter were 31,238 tons at an average price of US$134.25 per ton. In excess of 90,000 tons of good quality ROM coal is also held as stock, despite the winter weather having caused some production curtailment. The Company is increasing weekly working hours to boost production in the current quarter and remains on target to produce an estimated 450,000-500,000 tons of ROM coal for 2011. The coal pricing environment remains strong and continues to benefit from the high alternative demand for coking coal. The Board believes that prices will at least equal the average price in the current quarter as a minimum dealer summer discount price will be offset by higher industrial prices.

Cello (LON:CLL) (55p / £39.90m)

AIM listed marketing group has announced the acquisition of Red Kite Consulting Group Limited, a UK based consultancy business which serves the pharmaceutical sector and has a variety of blue chip clients including Abbott, Astellas, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi-Aventis, and Shire. Cello themselves has an existing pharmaceutical business, MSI, with which Red Kite will merge, which demonstrates the continuing consolidation in this space- earlier in March Cello acquired MedErgy HealthGroup Inc. to serve as its main US partner company servicing the US Pharmaceutical market.

Designcapital (LON:DESC) (14p / £9.46m)

The AIM listed Investment Company dedicated to high end contemporary furniture design, announces the appointment of Helen Kennedy Lambert as an independent Non-Executive Director of the Company. Helen has considerable experience in the luxury and fashion design industry, having been Managing Director of the AGA Group, an international buying offices group focused on the luxury sector, before purchasing and rebranding it in 2005 as Lambert Associates. The rebranded company services all fashion categories of the luxury market, through the complementary activities of Buying, Sourcing and Consulting. It brings a number of strong opportunities to the table including its network of operations across Europe and the US – markets in which designcapital seeks to become more established. Helen’s commitment is further demonstrated by the subscription for 2,000,000 new ordinary shares of the Company by Lambert Associates for a consideration of £200,000.

Encore Oil (LON:EO.) ( 125.5p / £367.33m)

EnCore has given an update on the Cladhan appraisal well that confirms the presence of a large oil column of over 1,200 feet in the main reservoir with the oil water contact yet to be found.  The plan is now to drill a number of side-track wells, the first one to evaluate the upper Jurassic sandstones in order to define the oil water contacts and a second one to confirm the presence of oil in the central channel.

Faroe Petroleum (LON:FPM) (183.25p / £389.20m)

AIM listed independent oil and gas Company focusing principally on exploration, appraisal and undeveloped field opportunities in the Atlantic margin has signed an agreement with Petoro AS to swap its interest in the Maria discovery for interests in a number of oil and gas production assets in Norway. The deal is a pure asset transaction, with no cash consideration being involved, and should result in Faroe gaining 7,300 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) to its estimated 2011 average production. Senergy (GB) Limited, an independent reserve engineering firm estimates that the Petoro assets contain proven plus probable (2P) reserves of 14mmboe in the producing oil fields and 1.2 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) of contingent resource in the undeveloped Gygrid field overall. Faroe’s 30 per cent holding in the Maria project, which is being used as consideration,  is currently undergoing concept screening studies by the Wintershall operator, and Faroe has to date invested close to £0.5m in the project so far.  The Company’s share price closed 3p higher.

Frontier Mining (LON:FML) (5.75p / £107m)

The AIM listed gold and copper E&D Company focused on Kazakhstan, announced that it has received written and final approval from both the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Kazakhstan (MIT) and the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) to complete the acquisition of Coville Intercorp’s 50 per cent interest in the Benkala copper project.

Both Frontier and Coville, which have already been operating as single units, will now be able to move forward toward successfully completing their integration.  Coville holds 873,215,000 ordinary shares in Frontier representing 46.9 per cent of the issued share capital of Frontier. The merger with Coville is a new milestone for the Company. It will allow Frontier to focus its entire efforts in bringing the Benkala asset into production later this year.

Fusion Ip (LON:FIP) (26.50p / £14.37m)*

Fusion IP, the manager of a university intellectual property commercialisation portfolio, has published interim results for the six months ended 31^st January 2011.  The carrying value of investments is £12.9m which is an increase of 19 percent while revenue and portfolio returns increased 15 percent to £2.1m.  Fusion has a number of exciting companies in its portfolio that is rapidly progressing towards important milestones that should result in increased valuations.

Highams Systems Services (LON:HSS) (2.88p / £1.98m)

The Group announced that it expects its annual results to be in line with market expectations. The group anticipates an encouraging increase in revenues. They have also grown their head count to cover the increased demand in IT and professional staff and they expect the benefit of this to show in improved revenues in the forthcoming financial year.

Immunodiagnostic Systems (LON:IDH) (847p / £236.91m)

The immuno-assay developer provided a trading update for the year to 31 March 2011. Revenue is expected to increase by 35 per cent to £50.1m which is most impressive and sales in all territories having increased year-on-year. The FDA cleared IDS-iSYS immuno-assayer system developed by the Company also made demonstrable improvements in sales terms with average revenue per instrument at £102,000- some 32 per cent ahead of the prior year, and representing some 21 per cent of total revenue for the period. Another significant development during the period included has been the signing of a licensing agreement for the IDS-iSYS assayer with Omega Diagnostics, the AIM listed developer of medical diagnostics products, who will provide IDS with a licence fee, a royalty on Omega automated product sales and revenues from both instrument and consumable sales. A strong update and we look forward to the final results at the end of June.

Lighthouse (LON:LGT) Group (9.25p / £11.81m)

Lighthouse Group, a financial adviser Group, has won an exclusive agreement with Prospect, a union in the UK representing engineers, scientists, managers and specialists in areas as diverse as agriculture, defence, energy, environment, heritage, shipbuilding and transport. The Contract runs for three years and under the terms of the Contract, LGT will be the exclusive provider of financial advice to Prospect’s members.

Lipoxen (LON:LPX) (11p / £19.50m)

AIM listed bio-pharmaceutical Company specialising in the development of high-value differentiated biological, vaccines and siRNA delivery, announced that is has agreed an extension of the existing research agreement with the International Aids Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), the world's leading AIDS vaccine organization. Based on data generated during the research phase of the original agreement, Lipoxen and IAVI have identified a vaccine formulation that, when used in a relevant preclinical model, induced antibodies which subsequently neutralised a number of different HIV strains when tested in the laboratory. IAVI have extended the agreement which will now run until 30 September 2011. This will allow Lipoxen to create advanced versions of the candidate formulation and IAVI to undertake a repeat of the immunisation study to assess the efficacy of the refined vaccine. Subject to the final results, Lipoxen and IAVI will jointly negotiate terms for the further development of any promising vaccine candidate.

Mediazest (LON:MDZ) (0.8p / £1.98m)*

AIM listed creative digital out-of-home advertising Company and audio-visual integrator, announced further sales of its "virtual assistant" product in conjunction with Tensator Limited, global leaders in queue management. Three new "Virtual Mannequins" have been created for Birmingham Airport, again welcoming travellers and assisting with preparations for quick progress through security procedures. Several more such projects are in the pipeline and expected to be completed during the course of 2011.

Next Fifteen (NFC 84p / £46.61m)

The global public relations consultancy Group, today announced growing results for the six months ending 31 January. Financial highlights include revenues increasing by 19 per cent to £40.8m from £34.2m in 2010. Profit before tax increased by 19 per cent to £2.49m from £2.08m in 2010. Earnings per share increased by 8 per cent to 2.79p from 2.58p in 2010.

In terms of corporate progress Next Fifteen acquired 85 per cent stake in US. These strong results reflect the opportunities the Group is experiencing as a result of the market transition to digital. Their background in technology and investments in digital have put them in a great position to grow both their core customer base and into adjacent markets.

Nostra Terra (LON:NTOG) Oil & Gas (NTOG 0.58p / £9.43m)

Nostra Terra Oil and Gas Company plc reports that the Agnello #1 horizontal well within the Vintage Hills prospect in Brazos County, Texas, has been brought into continuous production. This follows the successful initial testing of the oil and gas well, which was announced by the Company on 4^th March. NTOG has a 1 per cent interest in Vintage Hills. New Century Exploration Inc, operator of the well, is assessing its production performance and will update shareholders on production rates from the well following receipt of relevant data.

One Media Publishing (OMPP.PL 3p / £1.30m)*

PLUS quoted consolidators and acquirers of music and video rights have recently announced three new deals. First that it has signed an exclusive deal with Jongleurs Comedy Ltd to distribute their comedy recordings via One Media's digital distribution network. Jongleurs are Europe's largest chain of comedy clubs. The deal agreed with the CEO of Jongleurs, Maria Kempinska (MBE), will commence with immediate effect utilising the existing recordings owned by them for immediate release on a royalty sharing basis. Over the coming months Jongleurs will record many more acts from its existing and proposed new sites for digital distribution making many hundreds of hours of `stand up' comedy available via digital stores. Second, it signed a new music catalogue with Phoenix Music International Ltd and its associated labels including, GUT, Gusto, Jet Star and Collins Classics for an initial payment of USD$12,000 and an onward royalty. Artists in the catalogue include Jimmy Somerville, Tears for Fears, Fat Boy Slim, and David Morales. There are classical performances from The London Philharmonic Orchestra. This deal give One Media access to over 1200 artists and over 8000 tracks and further demonstrates their ability to acquire cross-genre music catalogue styles. Third, One Media, signed an exclusive new music catalogue with Ciko Ltd for an initial payment of USD$10,000 and an onward royalty. The performances, many of which are conducted by André Previn, Yehudi Menuhin, Charles Groves, Carl Davis and other great conductors, feature classical music composed by Tchaikovsky, Marler, Berlioz and Elgar. All tracks of all three deals will be made available through One Media's digital retail outlets of over 300 music downloading websites, including iTunes, HMV, Amazon, Tesco, Spotify, Verizon, eMusic and the classical specialist stores.

Ovoca Gold (LON:OVG) (OVG 33p / £29.2m)

In an update the Russian gold mining Company has announced a plan to drill 5,000 metres on the Podgorniy target and 2,000 metres on the Zet target during the 2011 exploration season.  Documentary and geophysical work will be done at Olcha and bulk sampling will be continued at Stakhanovsky. As the share price is still trading at a discount to the Company’s cash and investments the board has authorised a share buyback programme for up to 10 percent of the Company’s issued share capital by the end of the year.

Plexus (LON:POS) Holdings (64p / £51.32m)

The oil services Company has announced two more contract wins valued at a total of £700,000. One is with LLC Gazflot (a subsidiary of Gazprom) for TRT-S mudline suspension equipment for oil and gas exploration drilling activities of a well offshore West Kamchatka in the Magadan Basin.  The other is with BG Egypt (a division of BG Group) for POS-GRIP wellhead system with mudline suspension system for exploration activities offshore Egypt.  Plexus, who also recently signed contracts with Centrica and Statoil, is clearly benefitting from an increased awareness and demand in the oil and gas exploration industry for safer and improved operating practices post the Gulf of Mexico incident. 

Serabi Mining (LON:SRB) (SRB 36.5p / £23.35m)*

AIM and TSX listed gold exploration Company recently released its audited results for the year ended 31 December 2010. For the year ended 31 December 2010 the Company recorded a net loss of US$5,980,011 compared to a net loss of US$9,990,502 for the comparative period last year.  The decrease in the loss in part reflects that no impairment provision was taken in the current year; there were no write-offs in respect of past exploration activities and no requirement to increase the provision for rehabilitation on mine closure. The Company had a working capital position of US$2,793,046 at 31 December 2010 compared to US$2,656,862 at 31 December 2009. Excluding the accounting treatment of the net proceeds of the Special Warrant issue that was completed by the Company on 2 December 2010, the working capital position at 31 December 2010 would have been US$7,853,041. On 31 December 2010, the Company's total assets amounted to US$54,923,193, which compares to the US$49,238,168 recorded in 31 December 2009. Total assets are mostly comprised of property, plant and equipment, and deferred exploration and development costs.

Serabi separately announced results from the first exploration diamond drill holes in the Piaui geophysical anomaly at their Jardim do Ouro Project in the Tapajos region of Brazil. In December 2010 the Company commenced a 7,500 metre drilling programme designed to target nine high priority Induced Polarization targets.  To date the Company has completed seven drill holes at Piaui and received assays from the first five holes.  The drilling has to  date tested a 200m strike length of the 500m long  geophysical model and has returned significant gold intercepts in all five drill holes. The style of the mineralization intersected to date appears to be broader width to mineral resources identified at JDO to date.

Sirius Minerals (LON:SXX) (SXX 11.88p / £122.62m)

Sirius Minerals, a potash development Group, has signed a Cultural Heritage Management Agreement (CHMA) with the Bidjara People, the Native Title Claimants over the area in Queensland containing the Adavale Project. CHMA establishes a formal framework for the management and protection of Aboriginal Cultural Heritage sites and a basis for expediting exploration activities on the project.

Smartfocus (LON:STF) (STF 24.5p / £23.39m)

SmartFOCUS, the AIM listed global provider of email and multi-channel marketing software and services, this week announced an agreement with Emailvision Holdings on the terms of a recommended cash acquisition by Emailvision for the company for approximately £25.3m. The acquisition price is 25 pence per smartFOCUS share and this represents a premium of 61 per cent to the Company’s share price on the last dealing day immediately preceding the announcement.  Emailvision has the benefit of irrevocable undertakings to support the acquisition from holders of 51.7 per cent of the Company’s share capital together with a letter of intent from the holder of a further 14.6 per cent of the Company. In deciding to recommend the proposed acquisition, the Company’s board noted the company’s share price performance has been impaired by factors including the company’s limited scale and low level of liquidity. The acquisition will give smartFOCUS significantly more financial and operational flexibility to grow and transition the business as part of larger group.

Strategic Natural Resources (LON:SNRP) (SNRP 26.5p / £28.91m)

Strategic Natural Resources, which develops, owns and manages natural resource extraction enterprises in Southern Africa, has signed an exclusive coal off-take agreement with Trasteel International SA, a global steel supplier and commodity trader, over 100 per cent of the beneficiated coal to be mined at SNRP’s Elitheni coal mine in the Eastern Cape of South Africa up to an initial 2 million tons, /- 10 per cent at Trasteel’s option. The first shipment will be loaded in June 2012, with 500,000 tons of coal ( /- 10 per cent) scheduled to be shipped during the following twelve months. The balance of the coal is scheduled to be shipped before the end of 2014. Trasteel has also been granted a right of first refusal, on terms to be mutually agreed between the parties, on any coal produced in excess of the initial 2 million tons covered under the agreement. The initial order represents less than 1 per cent of the already proven Elitheni coal deposit.

Strategic Thought (LON:STR) (STR 50p / £15.20m)

Strategic Thought, the AIM Company which has developed and supplies market leading risk management software, has announced a trading update for the financial year ended 31 March 2011. Its Active Risk Manager product is used by many leading international companies for both enterprise wide risk management and risk management on demanding projects. The Company has made considerable progress over the year under review and full year results are expected to show the Company to return to profitability. Profit is expected to be in line with current market forecasts at £0.6 m (being profit before interest, tax and share based payments) on sales of approximately £8.8 m, some 7 per cent, higher than last year. Net cash at 31 March 2911 is expected to £2.2m. The Company’s board is strongly encouraged by the results, which reflect management’s focus on improving sales execution and marketing as well as its tight control of the cost base. Full year results are due out towards the end of May and we will watch progress with interest.

Sunkar Resources (LON:SKR) (SKR 31p / £49.55m)

Sunkar Resources announced a positive update on its milling operations and its first revenues from Direct Application Rock (DAR) sales. The Company completed its first commercial sale of DAR. The sale was to a Russian farming Company; although a small quantity, the shipment marks another milestone in the progress of Sunkar as a developing phosphate fertilizer company. Talks with agriculture buyers on further shipments are being carried out after new domestic fertilizer subsidy regulations were recently issued by the Kazakhstan Government. Sunkar officially started industrial scale production of DAR at its Milling and Loading Complex (MLC). Currently the MLC consist of two identical milling lines with a capacity of 20 tonnes per hour each. Up to 30 rail cars can be accommodated on the MLC’s loading terminal which links via the Company’s recently completed rail spur to the main state railroad. To date more than 900 tonnes of beneficiated phosphate rock have been milled into DAR. With its first commercial DAR shipment, Sunkar has taken a step from mine developer to phosphate fertilizer producer and has made further progress on its path to become a well regarded fertilizer Company.

Symphony (LON:SIHL) Environmental (LON:SYM) Technologies (SYM 18.25p / £21.42m) 

Symphony Environmental Technologies, the advanced plastics technologies Group, has reported a 58 per cent rise in full year profit and says it will be devoting attention to the huge market in the USA in 2011. The pre-tax profit in the year ended December 31^st 2010 was £1.01m (2009 £0.64m) on revenues increased by 21 per cent to £8.48m (2009 £7.04m). Profit after tax increased by 29 per cent to £1.19m (2009 £0.92m). The gross profit margin increased to 57 per cent (2009 55 per cent). Michael Laurier, CEO of Symphony commented “we are delighted to be able to report our first £1m profit”.

The Company continues to grow both its product portfolio and revenue streams and is well placed to benefit from continued growth in demand. With the Company’s successes away from these shores, it seems slightly anomalous that the big UK supermarket chains show such reticence when it comes to embracing SYM’s technology for plastic carrier bags, preferring to ‘appear’ green by variously banning the use of the bags altogether, making a charge for each bag (thereby transferring the ‘guilt’ to the consumer) or pushing the customer towards buying a ‘bag for life’. Were they to use bags containing SYM’s additive, which makes them 100 per cent biodegradable, it would enable them to return to free bags and they would be satisfying both customers and the green lobby simultaneously, perhaps providing any supermarket with the opportunity for some good PR in the current trend of wanting to save the planet.

Valirx (LON:VAL) (VAL 0.77p / £8.04m)*

AIM listed life science Company with a focus on cancer diagnostics and therapeutics for personalised medicine, notes the April 2011 publication of a report by www.which.co.uk ("WHICH?") on Self-Test Health Kits. The Company is pleased to see that the report endorses the principle behind individuals choosing to monitor their own health and ValiRx welcomes the suggestion that self-testing kit manufacturer’s work together to improve the provision of clear information on the kits. ValiRx makes every effort to check that the information it supplies with all of its CE-marked SELFCheck branded products is concise and accurate. In light of the WHICH? Report findings, the Company have referred the issues raised to its Scientific & Clinical Advisory Board.

 

*A corporate client of Hybridan LLP