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Over the last 11 months we have featured 25 Aim-listed companies in Aimzine. This article comments on major announcements from these companies over the last month. To view the original Aimzine article on a company please visit our Archive facility.

April has certainly been a good month for most of our featured companies with many announcing positive news. In fact, the shares of these 25 companies have shown an average share price gain of 17.8% in the month (up to 27 April).

              the shares of these 25 companies

have shown an average

share price gain of 17.8%

in the month

Westminster Group

On 24 April Westminster issued its results for the year to 31 December 2008. These showed a maiden profit after tax of £204,000 and an impressive 100% increase in turnover to £5.5 million. The order book for 2009 is £4.2 million up 180% on the previous year.

 We thought that the results statements were most encouraging. In particular, we have reproduced below some comments made by chief executive, Peter Fowler (the highlights are ours):

'2008 represents a turning point for the Westminster Group. We have delivered a strong performance during the period, despite the challenging economic climate of today, producing significant growth in both turnover and order book as well delivering maiden profits for the Group. The growing spread, size and frequency of contracts secured clearly demonstrates the extent of our global reach and the breadth of the solutions and products provided to our clients.’

'We feel that we have barely scratched the surface of the potential market for our services and every member of the team is committed to ensuring that Westminster delivers on this potential.’

'The network of agents and infrastructure, that we have worked tirelessly to build over the last few years, is very scalable and able to support significant future growth.’ 

'We are debt free with sufficient cash reserves to continue our growth plans and, in addition to the significant organic growth prospects for the Group, we will continue to look for strategic alliances and acquisition opportunities to build a sustainable business and deliver shareholder value.’

'With resources in place to enable the further development of the profile of the business, clear strategic goals and objectives and continuing development of the operational infrastructure, the Board believes that shareholders can look forward confidently to 2009 and beyond'.

Earlier in April Westminster had announced a 2 million Euro contract to supply and install an advanced security net over the river Nile to protect the new Nagaa Hammadi dam complex.

ZOO Digital

Another company reporting a 100% increase in turnover was ZOO Digital. On 8 April ZOO issued a Trading Update for the year to 31 March 2009. The Group reported that results for the year would be in line with management expectations. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were £1.3 million, although this is after an exchange rate gain of £1.6 million. At the end year ZOO had cash of £989,000.

The trading update reported that the focus on their principal customers, the major film studios, had continued and that significant progress had been made in increasing the number of business units using ZOO’s products and services.

The RNS also included the following outlook statement: ‘Significant progress has been achieved over the last 12 months and as ZOO's products become more widely adopted and demand for production services increases, visibility of forward production volumes for the coming year is improving. Despite the difficulties in the current climate the Board is confident of continued progress.’

We contacted ZOO’s CEO, Stuart Green, and asked if he could give us further information about the outlook in terms of profitability or cash-flow. Stuart explained that he could not give a forecast but ‘.....we have made significant progress over the past 12 months and expect that progress to continue.’ Stuart did say, however, that there is likely to be a new broker’s forecast issued at the time of the preliminary results at the end of June.

ViaLogy

Vialogy has issued three trading statements during April to report on progress with the Galba oil prospect in South Central Texas. Firstly the Company announced on 1 April that it had exercised an option to increase its holding in the first successful Galba project oil well - the holding being upgraded to a 10% direct working interest.

The trading statements on 16 and 23 April dealt primarily with a second Galba prospect well. The later statement confirmed that the well had been successful and that ViaLogy had accurately predicted the size, location and formation porosity for this well. ViaLogy were naturally delighted with this success with CEO, Robert Dean, commenting: 'This successful well marks a major step forward for the company in demonstrating the capability of QuantumRD and its relevance in the oil patch. Our hope and intention is to enable multiple producing wells in the coming months, cautioning at the same time that no seismic interpretation technique can be one hundred percent effective one hundred percent of the time. What we can bring to the industry over time is a major improvement in the ratio of drilling dry holes to producing wells, and thus considerable cost savings.' Drilling on the next Galba well is due to commence before the end of June.

ViaLogy have reported that interest in their technology is considerable and that they have begun technical and business discussions with a large Texas-based exploration and production firm.

During April ViaLogy also took the opportunity to raise further capital by offering warrant holders the opportunity to exercise their warrants at a reduced price for a limited period up to  30 April 2009. This warrant re-pricing exercise is expected to raise in excess of £1 million for ViaLogy. Chairman, Terry Bond, commented: ‘The re-pricing of the warrants seemed a very elegant solution to our funding requirements whilst minimising any dilution effect.'

Aimzine Comment: These are certainly exciting times for ViaLogy. Currently the market capitalisation of the company is £25 million at a share price of 5 pence. If QuantumRD really can seriously reduce the risk of dry exploration wells then this share price has a long way to go. We look forward to reporting on further developments.

Enfis

On 23 April LED lighting specialist, Enfis, announced a strategic partnership with Chicago-based North Star Lighting. The RNS stated that: ‘The agreement will see both companies jointly introduce the latest version of the highly popular Enfis Sentinel LED lighting control technology at the forthcoming Lightfair International 2009 Trade Show & Conference in New York’.

This would appear to be a significant move for Enfis. Tom Rotkis, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at North Star Lighting was quoted in the statement as saying , 'North Star Lighting views Enfis as a strategic partner who will enable us to develop performance based LED products for the Specification Market. With the Enfis 'Intelligent' LED lighting system we can virtually eliminate the problems associated with traditional white light sources, delivering consistent colour quality from day one, all the way to the end of useful life. Our partnership with Enfis is paramount to our ability to actually deliver something to the market place which will be specifiable and not 'just another LED product.'

ContentFilm

On 21 April the Company announced a restructuring of its US home entertainment joint venture, Peace Arch Home Entertainment (PAHE). The effect of the deal is that ContentFilm will be swapping its 50% interest in the US joint venture for a 22.5% minority stake in a new combined US and Canadian business. This new venture, led by Berry Meyerowitz, will be named Phase 4 Films. As part of the deal, ContentFilm is being relieved of its obligation to make ongoing capital contributions to PAHE and will not make any further ongoing capital contributions to Phase 4. To read the full RNS statement please click here.

 John Schmidt, Chief Executive Officer of ContentFilm, commented:  'This is a positive development for ContentFilm.  In place of a 50% stake in a U.S. joint venture with ongoing capital commitments, we now have a minority stake in a larger North American venture with no ongoing capital commitments.  We are believers in Berry Meyerowitz and his team and we are pleased that Berry has acquired the business with the support of ContentFilm and his new financiers. We are looking forward to working with Berry to build his business and ultimately realise value for our equity stake.'

In addition to this announcement we noted in a press release that ContentFilm had acquired the international sales rights to Eric Bana’s documentary feature debut LOVE THE BEAST. The press release went on to say: ‘Eric Bana directs and stars exploring the meaning of his 25-year-long relationship with his first car, “The Beast”.  Filmed over 2 years, the film follows Bana on an - unexpectedly - emotional journey from inside the race car to the surreal world of the red carpet as he considers the importance of family, friends and what it means to drive fast….really fast.  In addition to the participation of family and lifelong friends, the film stars Jay Leno, the Emmy Award winning host of The Tonight Show, Jeremy Clarkson of the popular UK series Top Gear, and Dr. Phil who bring their own points of view on the relationship between man and machine.’

Finally, on 29 April, Edison issued a research note on ContentFilm – click here to read the note.

Dowgate Capital

On 16 April Blue Oar announced that it had purchased 9.9% of Dowgate’s shares at a price of 6 pence per share. The announcement went on to say that that Blue Oar was considering its position regarding a possible offer for Dowgate with any offer being at a minimum of 6 pence per share in cash with a possible share alternative.

On 21 April Dowgate issued their Final Results for the year to 31 December 2008. Not surprisingly, given the current market conditions, these results showed a loss on reduced turnover. The operating loss was reported as £390,000 although, after exceptional costs of £629,000 and a goodwill impairment of £1,559,000, the loss before tax was £2,777,000.

The results statement reported that the Board had received a proposal from the management team of its subsidiary, Dowgate Capital Advisors, to acquire the business for a sum of £1.5 million. However, the MBO discussions have been terminated following the approach from Blue Oar.

Dowgate’s shares have responded favourably to the news of an approach and the price doubled from 3 pence to 6 pence in just 3 days. However, the price has subsequently fallen back to 4.75 pence at which price the market capitalisation of Dowgate is £1.9 million. The share price seems low considering that Dowgate has net cash and has had an MBO offer for only part of business at £1.5 million.

the price doubled from

3 pence to 6 pence in

just 3 days

Planet Payment

Planet issued its final results for the year to 31 December 2008 on 31 March. These showed the continuing strong growth in revenue which increased by 11% to $36.2 million. Net loss for the year improved by 18% to $10.98 million. Analyst forecasts indicate a much reduced loss figure in the current year. As if to underline the improving results, Planet announced on 15 April that three directors, including CEO Philip Beck, had purchased shares in the Company.

Finally, on 22 April, Planet announced an agreement to provide Planet Payment's suite of products and services to Bancorp's merchants and third party servicers in the U.S. payments market. To read the full RNS statement please click here.

NeutraHealth

Yet another takeover story continues to unfold at NeutraHealth. On 7 April Elder Pharmaceuticals confirmed that it is still considering its options with regard to further investment in NeutraHealth. It further confirmed that any offer, if made, would be solely in cash.

Sagentia

We were much saddened by the announcement from Sagentia on 14 April. They reported

‘It is with deep and profound sadness that we report the tragic and totally unexpected death of Alistair Brown, the Chief Executive of the Sagentia Group PLC. After a short illness, Alistair passed away over the Easter weekend. He leaves a wife and two teenage children.’

‘Alistair joined Sagentia in 2000 as business development manager and was responsible for establishing the Company's operations in Germany. He was appointed Chief Executive of the Sagentia Group in March 2008 and successfully changed the strategic direction of the Company.’

‘The Board of Sagentia will shortly begin the process of identifying a new Chief Executive.  However, until this process is complete, Daniel Flicos, the Company's Commercial Director, will assume full operational control of the business.’

We had planned to include an article from the Group about their products in this edition of Aimzine, but this will now appear in a later edition.

Symphony Environmental

Symphony announced some good results on 8 April. We comment further on these results in our Aim Snippet Feature this month. Symphony’s Chief Executive, Michael Laurier must be pleased with how the Group is progressing as he purchased 221,000 of their shares on 21 April.

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In Brief

Private & Commercial issued a trading update on 7 April stating that the results for the year to 31 March 2009 are expected to be in line with market expectations. In addition the Company announced that it was proposing to offer £2 million of new loan notes to refinance the existing loan notes due for repayment in September 2009. CEO Scott Maybury made the following comment on trading: 'Our products continue to be in demand. Although the overall market has decreased, the withdrawal of a number of our competitors has effectively cancelled out the slowdown in the wider economy. However our ability to satisfy demand has been limited by the availability of senior debt funding. As a result we have been extremely selective in our underwriting and focused on improving margins and ensuring that our portfolios of finance receivables are well spread and of robust quality.'

On 6 April Ridge Mining announced that it had delivered its first concentrate from its Blue Ridge mine to Impala Refining Services. Also, in connection with the probable takeover by Aquarius Platinum, Aquarius announced on 27 April that it had received an irrevocable undertaking from Ridge’s significant shareholder, Zijin.

On 2 April Hexagon Human Capital issued a trading update and also announced the termination of talks regarding a possible offer. Regarding trading, the Group reported that it had seen weaker trading conditions in its executive search businesses during the final quarter of the year to 31 March 2009. Consequently, it is anticipated that net fee income for the quarter will be below the equivalent period in 2008. However, Hexagon did report that its senior interim management business, which accounts for 64% of Group EBITA, remains robust. For the year Hexagon anticipates EBITA will be not less than £5.9 million. Jonathan Wright, Chief Executive Officer of Hexagon Human Capital, said: 'Given the challenging global economic environment, we are delighted with the Group's performance. The economic outlook continues to look challenging in the short term but given our strength in senior interim management and our diverse portfolio of international executive search businesses we remain optimistic about the medium term.'

Stop Press: On 28 April Advanced Power Components announced their interim results for the six months to 28 February. These showed a loss of £281,000. This result had been expected following the trading update issued in March. Chief Executive, Mark Robinson, made this comment: 'Wider market conditions have resulted in a difficult six months, with  foreign exchange issues  being  the principal cause of a  pre-tax loss for the period. Nevertheless, underlying trading in several of the Company's business units has remained strong; we have maintained or even improved our market share; and we continue to develop new parts of the business, such as APC KVAR, where initial  trials and  feedback have  been promising. All of this leads us to remain cautiously optimistic about the future.'

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