Small caps round-up: Westminster Group, Angle, Asterand

Defence technology firm Westminster Group said its investment in a West African airport was looking promising and that an initial aggregate $150m revenue forecast could be achieved by the contract's eight year break point rather than the full contract term of 15 years. "Should that be the case, the revenue potential for the full contract term would be substantial," the firm said. It added that it had issued almost three million new shares to a "strategic investor who has significant interests in West Africa", raising £500,000 in the process. Westminster's shares rose 14% after the announcement.

By MoneyWeek

published 30 April 2012

Shares in technology investment firm Angle jumped again on Monday after it announced another breakthrough with its Parsortix cancer cell separation device. The firm said it had successfully captured circulating tumour cells in prostate cancer and breast cancer patient blood, which would aid in the diagnosis and monitoring of cancer sufferers. It has also solved issues of sample volume and processing time, bringing the device "much closer to market launch". The company's shares rose 12.6% on the news and are up 37% over the last week following earlier successes with Parsotix.

Human tissue services group Asterand saw its value go through the floor after it announced it had called off a sale of the business. Shares fell almost 40% after the firm said it had instead signed letters of intent to sell each of its two businesses, BioSeek and the non-BioSeek Tissue Based Solutions business, separately. This would then lead to a solvent liquidation of the group to return cash to shareholders, according to the company. "The board's current estimation, based on the letters of interest from the buyers and the current share price, is that the maximum payout to shareholders is unlikely to show a significant premium to the share price as of the close of business on 26 April 2012," Asterand said. To add to the bad news the firm announced pre-tax losses of $6.6m for 2011.