Small-cap Week, May 2

SkyePharma shares were among the week's biggest fallers, sliding 13.3 per cent on worries that it might miss out on a cash payment. Pacira Pharmaceuticals, which bought SkyePharma's injectables business in 2007, was set to make an $8m milestone payment if sales of Skye's Exparel anaesthetic hit $250m this year. But earlier in the week Pacira withdrew sales targets for Exparel, blaming disruption at hospitals.

GW Pharmaceuticals, the cannabis developer that is now Aim's second-most valuable company, lost 9.8 per cent of that value after it said that it would raise $180m of new money by issuing Nasdaq American Depositary Shares. GW's valuation jumped from less than £100m to almost £1.5bn after it took a Nasdaq listing in 2013.

Shares in Kenmare Resources, owner of a Mozambique mineral-sands project, bounced 28.5 per cent after Iluka of Australia reduced an all-share takeover offer after a year of talks. Its new non-binding proposal still promises a premium of 100 per cent to the undisturbed price but comes with undisclosed preconditions that Kenmare said it was working towards meeting.

John Menzies shares rose 7.5 per cent over the week after Lakestreet Capital, a Swiss activist investor, pushed for a break-up of the airport services and newspaper distribution group. Lakestreet used its 3 per cent stake in Menzies to appeal directly to other shareholders, calling the stock "dramatically undervalued" and claiming that a restructuring could boost its valuation by two-thirds.

Water-saving group Xeros's revenues double in first half

Drought in California is good news for Xeros, the maker of commercial washing machines that drastically reduce water use. The Rotherham group uses polymer beads to lift dirt from clothes, cutting water and energy costs, writes Andrew Bounds.

First-half results this week showed that it installed 17 machines in the six months to January 31. There are 54 in total, mainly in hotels and commercial laundries. Xeros's clients usually sign five-year deals that include service and bead supply. On April 23 Xeros announced it had signed up 61 "channel partners" who will provide that support in the US, increasing its capacity.

Revenues in the first half doubled to £172,000 from a year before, along with pre-tax losses (£4.8m).

By the end of the year a 15kg machine that can be used in launderettes should be in production. Xeros also signed a deal with Germany's Lanxess to work on applications for the leather industry, which uses a lot of water.

UK directors of Naibu move to gain control of China unit

The UK-based non-executive directors at Naibu, the Chinese sportswear manufacturer whose shares were suspended in January, said they had begun legal action to gain control of the Chinese operating subsidiary and its bank accounts, writes Kate Burgess.

They have also terminated the contracts of Huoyan Lin, executive chairman, and Congdeng Lin, vice-president of production, although they remain as statutory directors of the company for the time being.

This comes two months after the UK directors said they had been unable to obtain information on the company's trading position from the chairman or executive director in China and therefore could not assess the financial position of the business.

This week, the non-executives said they had had telephone conversations and email contact with Mr Lin but he was still not co-operating.

Shares in the company, which were listed on Aim in 2012, were suspended in January pending clarification of its financial position.

Focusrite strikes right note with push into US

Shares in Focusrite gained 5 per cent this week as half-year results at the provider of equipment to amateur musicians showed a leap in revenue on the back of expansion in the US, writes Conor Sullivan.

Focusrite was bought out of liquidation by Phil Dudderidge, a former Led Zeppelin roadie, in 1989 and is now worth £102m. The company floated on Aim last December and the shares have popped 30 per cent since then.

This week it said that revenues rose 18 per cent in the half-year to February 28, helped by a 24 per cent advance in the US. Operating profits were unchanged at £3m, partly because of £700,000 of IPO costs, on top of £600,000 spent before the start of the year.

While making most of its money from selling hardware, the company said that its free DJ-ing app had been downloaded 2.8m times and was starting to generate revenue as users paid for extra features.

It added that net cash was up a quarter at £4.7m and there were several product launches in the pipeline for the second half of the year.

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