Small cap round-up: Angel Biotechnology, Glanbia, MBL Group

Angel Biotechnology has signed an agreement with arGentis Pharmaceuticals that could see it manufacture the firm's ARG201 drug, a treatment for the life-threatening autoimmune disease, systemic sclerosis. Angel's stock rose 6.6% in morning trading.

By MoneyWeek

published 29 August 2012

in Features

Glanbia, a nutritional solutions and cheese maker, has announced plans to enter a joint venture to incorporate the business and assets of Dairy Ingredients Ireland. The business is the largest dairy ingredients processor in Ireland, assembling a milk pool of 1.6bn litres and processing it into around 180,000 tonnes of ingredients, largely for export. The group also reported first half results on Wednesday showing pre-tax profits up 24% on the prior year. Glanbia's shares were up 4% at 11:28.

MBL Group, an audio and visual entertainment distributor, appears to be clawing its way back to health after losing its most important customer, Morrisons, last year. In its full year results to the end of March, revenues dropped massively, from £195.3m to £28.1m. Revenue from continuing operations dropped from £20m to £17.7 while the loss before tax came in at £2.1m (from discontinued operations this figure was £8.8m). Group loss per share was 40.8p. Nevertheless, MBL is free from debt and has cash balances of £4.0m and a headcount down 75%. This was enough to boost the stock 8% in morning trading.