Vianet Group (AIM:VNET) has seen its shares froth up after winning a contract from coffee specialist Lavazza.
Lavazza Professional UK Limited has awarded Vianet a three-year contract to provide contactless payment, telemetry, and data services across its unattended retail estate.
Vianet said the deal would not have a material impact on the current financial year, but was financially significant. It includes a commitment to provide Vianet's services to 3,000 units in Lavazza's managed estate and gives Vianet preferred supplier access to a further 10,000 machines in its direct estate providing coffee solutions to vending operators and end-users.
Vianet is up 4.15% at 99.98p
2.39pm: Block Energy boosted by drilling news and higher revenues
Block Energy PLC (AIM:BLOE) has seen its shares gush higher after its latest update.
The exploration and production company, with operations in Georgia, said its JKT-01Z well had achieved its initial geographical objectives.
The well is close to and targets the same area of the Middle Eocene reservoir as KRT-39, which has been a sustained producer of oil and gas for over 20 years
During the fourth quarter Block Energy produced an average of 376 barrels of oil per day, and received revenues of US$2.55mln, up from US$901,000 in the third quarter.
Chief executive officer Paul Haywood, said: "We are pleased with the progress being made at JKT-01Z. Having encountered hydrocarbons and experienced significant mud losses whilst drilling, the early signs are encouraging....
"Strong sales, stable production and the ability to take advantage of enhanced sales pricing during the quarter, combined with encouraging initial signs from JKT-01Z, all add to the board's confidence in the company's ability to improve performance as we look to the year ahead".
Its shares have soared 21.82% to 1.34p.
1.01pm: Gresham Technologies beats expectations, helped by Electra acquisition
Gresham Technologies plc (LSE:GHT) is performing ahead of market expectations after a strong fourth quarter.
The software and services group said full year group revenues were up 48% to £36.8mln, including a £5.4mln contribution from Electra Information Systmes, acquired in June 2021.
Adjusted earnings rose 58% to £7.1mln, while it finished the year with better than expected net cash and cash equivalents of £9.1mln.
Gresham had been expected to report revenues of £35.3mln, earnings of £6.6mln and cash of £5.3,mln.
Chief executive Ian Manocha said: "The acquisition of Electra enables us to build on our strong market position and reputation and provides us with a platform for significant, scalable, growth with high quality, recurring revenues. Our data and automation solutions are used every day by major financial institutions and we are seeing good new business momentum across all of our regional sales teams. Looking ahead, with a strong pipeline, a great client base and a business model that gives us in excess of £37mln of 2022 group revenues already under contract, we are very well placed to take advantage of the growing market opportunity."
Gresham has climbed 4.97% or 8.5p to 179.5p.
11.44am: Shoe Zone strides ahead after returning to profit
Shares in Shoe Zone PLC (AIM:SHOE) are stepping out in style after it moved back into profit.
Helped by its investment in its online business paying off, full year digital revenues rose from £19.3mln to £30.5mln.
This helped mitigate a fall in store revenues from £103.3m to £88.6mln, so overall sales slipped just £3.5mln to £119.1mln.
It made a profit of £9.5mln compared to a £14.6mln loss.
After closing 50 unprofitable locations, it now has 410 stores trading.
It plans to start paying a dividend again this year.
Analyst Nick Bubb said: "The belated Shoe Zone finals (for the 52 weeks to 3 October).. show a return to profit (of £9.5m, versus a £14.6m loss in the year before), thanks to good online sales growth, but, curiously, there is no current trading update."
Even so, its shares have jumped 17.37% to 138.5p.
10.38am: Senior gains on contract wins from Boeing and Honda
Senior PLC (LSE:SNR) has been lifted by news of orders from Boeing and Honda.
The manufacturing group has won multi-year contracts from Boeing to supply both floor beam assemblies on the Boeing 767 and quadrant assemblies for flight control systems on the Boeing 737 and Boeing 777 platforms.
For the carmaker it will provide exhaust flexible connectors for its 1.5L and 2.0L gasoline engines.
Senior shares have added 4.08% to 142.7p.
10.00am: Deltex Medical drops as business is hit by delays in non-COVID-19 treatments
The delays in medical operations due to hospitals having to concentrate on COVID-19 patients has hit Deltex Medical Group plc (AIM:DEMG), a specialist in measuring blood flow in real time.
In a trading update, the company said full year revenues had dipped from £2.4mln to £2.3mln.
It suffered disruption associated with the pandemic for the entire year, unlike in 2020 when business in the first quarter was not so severely affected.
Its UK and US businesses have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, but the performance of the international division significantly improved during the year.
The backlog in elective surgical cases continues to build around the world, it said, and this is increasingly becoming a political issue in many territories.
Meanwhile it is attempting to diversify away from elective surgery by increasing its research into developing a non-invasive, easy-to-use Doppler-based haemodynamic monitoring system.
Its shares are down 7.41% at 1.25p.
8.42am: Diaceutics in demand after revenues beat expectations
Diaceutics PLC (AIM:DXRX) is looking healthy after a positive trading update.
The diagnostic commercialisation company, said full year revenues were up around 10% to £13.9mln, some 2% ahead of market expectations.
Adjusted earnings jumped from £0.5mln to £2.1mln.
Its DXRX platform, which integrates diagnostic testing data from a global network of laboratories, was launched in October 2020 and now accounts for 57% of its total revenues, well ahead of the 20% target it intially expected.
Chief executive Peter Keeling said: "Although this is only the first full year of DXRX in the market, the platform has enhanced every part of our business model, from operating efficiencies, client delivery, new client acquisition and the shift to licence revenue. It has been evident as the year progressed, that we are building a strong base business resulting in a growing contracted backlog and sales pipeline going into 2022, providing us with the confidence to continue investing in the platform to capture this significant opportunity."
Meanwhile the company has appointed Nick Roberts, currently head of group reporting at Ergomed PLC (AIM:ERGO, ETR:2EM), as chief financial officer, effective from mid-March.
He replaces Philip White who is stepping down to pursue new business opportunities.
Diaceutics has added 6.28% to 110p.
Alba Mineral Resources PLC (AIM:ALBA) has seen its shares sparkle after it announced a new sampling programme to start shortly at the waste rock dump at the Clogau-St David's Gold Mine, where an initial exercise in 2021 returned gold grades of up to 9.89 grams per tonne.
Mark Austin, Alba's chief operating officer, said: "This second pitting and sampling phase should give us a more accurate assessment of the economic potential of one section of the waste rock dump at Clogau. Assuming these next assay values are in line with the first phase of sampling, we intend to process a greater volume of the excavated fines through our existing gravity gold plant and, thereafter, to design and submit a plan to mine and process the higher-grade section of the dump."
Alba shares are up 5.26% at 0.15p.