Bid news continues to dominate the action on Aim, though the flow of company results has also got going once more as those with year-ends in March and September report finals and interims respectively. The junior market index has continued to bounce upwards with all this activity, climbing six per cent to 607.2 since the beginning of May.

Bid news keeps flooding in

Bid targets can be found in all sectors, though media groups have noticeably come to the fore.

For example, sports marketing group Sports Resource attracted a 10p per share bid from a management team involving directors Chris Akers and Nigel Robertson, helping its shares up 58 per cent to 9.5p.

Lads' mag doyen James Brown's publishing house I Feel Good climbed 15 per cent to 7.75p as it agreed to an 8p per share offer from 6.6 per cent shareholder Dennis Publishing.

Financial publisher Hemscott is awaiting remaining shareholder response to a 15p cash or shares bid from Dairy Brands of New Zealand, which is looking to get involved in the consolidation of the financial media sector. It already has the support of more than 50 per cent of shareholders.

Social housing consultancy HACAS surged on to a new high of 150p before dropping to 135.5p after the group, which has attracted attention from a possible bidder, reported its own interims. These were very impressive, showing pre-tax profits increased 43 per cent to £2.4 million on turnover raised 19 per cent to £8.1 million for the six months to March. Discussions are continuing with its unknown suitor.

Results flow

Brokers and Nomads have been saying for a while that new entrants to the market should be robust and profitable to raise fresh money. In-car entertainment systems provider Centurion Electronics, which raised £2.3 million last December in a Seymour Pierce-sponsored placing, certainly fitted that bill. Results for the six months to March showed pre-tax profits up 211 per cent to £400,000 on turnover raised 95 per cent to £2.8 million. This pleased investors, who pushed the shares up to 42.5p.

Small-business workspace provider Bizspace has been around for rather longer, having been spun out of Larry Lipman's fully-listed Safeland in July 2000 at 70p. In retrospect, that price looked rather overcooked and the shares have not rewarded investors who came in at the time. But over the past month or so they have been perking up significantly from a low of 17.5p, helped by bullish broker and press coverage.

This was all predicated on the expectation of a good performance from the company in the year to February, which it delivered. Pre-tax profits doubled to £1.3 million and a revaluation of its properties beefed net asset value to 43p, in line with house broker Bell Lawrie's expectations. The shares are trading at 27p.

Drug developer Fulcrum Pharma was not in favour though, after releasing its interim results prematurely on the advice of broker Seymour Pierce, following speculative price rises. The group actually reported a loss of £313,000 before exceptionals, against a £422,000 profit last time. The shares slipped 24 per cent to 9.13p.

Elsewhere in the biotech sector, Irish-Czech biotech Alltracel Pharmaceuticals surged 22 per cent to 16.5p after announcing the successful completion of clinical trials for its m.doc dental pin, which apparently stops gums bleeding in 1-2 minutes.

Another significant development concerned cash shell Volvere the self-styled 'turnaround specialist' headed by Dixons legend Sir Stanley Kalms. It announced the £2 million purchase of Amey Vectra, a subsidiary of Amey (whose founder Neil Ashley is on Volvere's board).

Landround interims upcoming

June will herald interim results from highly regarded travel promotions business Landround, and they should make for good reading. Back in February, the group reported that sales in the first four months of the year were running 'ahead of expectations... exceeding any comparable period in the group's history'. Since then there has been much share dealing by those associated with the company (always a good sign), the most recent being a purchase of 15,000 shares at 145p by chairman Michael Crompton.

The results should see the company record profits in the region of £800,000, leaving it perfectly placed to hit (if not exceed) market forecasts of £1.4 million for the full year. On expected 2003 earnings of 18.3p, Landround – which has never borrowed cash and has been cashflow positive since the 12th week of its near-decade long existence – is trading on a forward p/e of 10.5 at the current 196p, with a market cap of £10.7 million.

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