Small-cap Week, April 11

Claims this week of a large oil discovery in the south east of England energised shares with exposure to the find.

UK Oil & Gas Investments said that deep drilling in the Weald Basin, in countryside near London's Gatwick airport, had identified what its chairman, David Lenigas, referred to as "multiple billion barrels" of oil - significantly more than previous estimates suggested.

While the extent to which these reserves could be recovered remained unclear, Mr Lenigas said that approvals for further test wells were "in process" and would come through later this year.

Shares in the Aim-traded company surged 192 per cent over the course of the week.

Solo Oil, which owns a 10 per cent interest in the Horse Hill Developments company that holds development licenses for the Weald Basin, rose 27 per cent over the week. Similarly, shares in Doriemus, another Horse Hill partner, gained 50 per cent.

Transense Technologies' shares strengthened 15 per cent this week after the group said that its iTrack tyre pressure and temperature monitoring system would be installed on all vehicles operating at BHP Billiton's Spence copper mine in Chile.

But shares in Alexander Mining fell nearly 11 per cent on Friday after the company conceded that "commercialisation efforts" had been "disappointing". It pointed to the demise of a licensing and consultancy agreement with Ebullio, one of its shareholders.

ADVFN battle with rebel Israeli investors intensifies

The battle escalated this week between directors of ADVFN, the online message board and investment data provider, and a group of rebel shareholders from Israel, writes Kate Burgess.

Last month investors Shellhouse, Sweet Sky and Zack Keinan called for a vote to depose ADVFN's board having built a stake of just under 26 per cent of the business. This week the board, headed by Clem Chambers, chief executive of ADVFN, said that it had refused to hold the meeting, claiming that the trio may have contravened UK law by building a stake more than 10 per cent in a regulated financial services firm without prior approval by the Financial Conduct Authority.

ADVFN is not regulated but it is the parent company of All Ipo, which is FCA-regulated. The board also said in a statement that it had been told by some of its shareholders that the requisitioners have used high-pressure techniques to buy stock. ADVFN's shares, which have risen more than 40 per cent in the past six months, ended the week at 114.5p.

Offshore gambling tax dents Netplay TV pot

Falling profits and a new tax on offshore gambling outfits took their toll on Netplay TV this week, sending the shares down 8 per cent, writes Conor Sullivan.

The Alderney-licensed company behind late-night betting shows on ITV1 and websites such as jackpot247.com said revenues fell 4 per cent to £27.4m during 2014, amid a shake-up that resulted in some of its marketing efforts moving in-house.

The company was hit by a "point of consumption" tax that took effect on December 1, which is based on the location of the gambler, not the operator. Netplay said it faced a bill of £333,000 for the month. This compares with adjusted pre-tax profits of £3.3m last year, which were down from £5.2m in 2013 and impairments and amortisation of acquired assets cut the reported pre-tax figure to £93,000.

Smaller rivals would struggle because of the tax, it said, placing it in a good position to buy some of them should the opportunity arise. Cash excluding punters' accounts was £12.1m at year-end and debt was zero.

The dividend was raised 10 per cent to 0.55p.

Norwegian well boost for Faroe Petroleum

Day-trader interest was concentrated on suggestions of a discovery of 100bn barrels of oil beneath Gatwick airport this week. Meanwhile life went on as normal for those with an established record with the drill bit in the North Sea, writes Michael Kavanagh.

Faroe Petroleum on Friday reported modest success at its Skirne East well in Norway. The Aim-quoted company has a 20 per cent stake in the project, which is also backed by Total and Centrica.

Preliminary analysis suggested 3m-10m barrels of oil equivalent is recoverable. Even so, the prospect for commercial exploitation of the find could depend on agreeing development plans.

The shares held their ground, closing at 87p on Friday. This values Faroe at £230m, six times that of UK Oil & Gas Investments, which grabbed headlines with its announcement of a potential mega-discovery in the Weald Basin of southern England. But it warned more drilling would be required "to prove its commerciality".

© The Financial Times Limited 2015. All rights reserved.
FT and Financial Times are trademarks of the Financial Times Ltd.
Not to be redistributed, copied or modified in any way.
Euro2day.gr is solely responsible for providing this translation and the Financial Times Limited does not accept any liability for the accuracy or quality of the translation