Small caps round-up: Cobra, SimiGon, Kedco, Crawshaw

Cobra, a UK-based retail and wholesale insurance broking group, has said it is continuing to co-operate with two potential buyers, namely Towergate Partnership and Alto Intermediary, which are both currently conducting pre-offer due diligence investigations into the firm. In order for these investigations to be completed, the deadline has been extended by 27 days to May 28th. Alto was formed by Cobra's ex-Chief Executive.

Simulation software provider SimiGon has been awarded a significant contract by Taisr, a US-based training organisation, for the delivery of advanced training and simulation solutions. The contract is worth $0.43m to SimiGon, all of which will be realised in 2012. The contract is aimed at closing the training gap in the Joint Close Air Support and manned/unmanned Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance technologies. "This agreement demonstrates that SimiGon is the partner of choice for simulated training in the defence sector as it expands the company's reach into the ISR market, a new, fast growing and substantial market for the company, valued at $17.3bn in 2011", the firm said.

Kedco, a renewable energy group focusing on the production of clean energy in the UK and Ireland, has earned £166,860 following the placing of just over 12.8m shares at 1.3p each with both new and existing investors. The proceeds will be used for both working capital purposes and for continuing investment in the company's portfolio of biomass electricity and heat generation projects.

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Crawshaw Group, a meat retailer, has posted a fall in its full-year figures for the 12 months ended January 31st. Sales fell from £19.1m to £18.9m year-on-year, pre-tax profit came in at just £2,374, operating profit dropped from £0.6m to £0.1m, while like-for-like (LFL) sales dropped four per cent, despite an improved performance in the fourth quarter. On the plus side, new debt was reduced from £0.5m to £0.2m. "Since the financial year end, like-for-like sales have continued to increase by 3%, and we are trading ahead of our expectation," the company said.