LONDON Small Caps Round up

Weekly Small Caps Review

Newspaper and magazine wholesaler Smiths News revealed a 44% drop in annual pre-tax profit after was hit by a number of charges but said revenue improved during the year.

Total revenues rose 6.9% to Ł1.33bn thanks partly to the addition of Bertrams, which contributed Ł53.5m of revenue during the five month period from its acquisition in March 2009.

Smiths said Bertrams is well placed to grow. "We have identified a number of opportunities to reduce costs in the base Bertrams business and we continue to work closely with the team in order to improve their operational performance."

Pre-tax profit fell to Ł18.4m during the year ended 31 August 2009 from Ł32.6m before. Smiths took an impairment charge of Ł3.1m after it failed to "secure the contracts required to achieve scale."

Commenting on trading chief executive Mark Cashmore said, "Our markets remain challenging, but in recent months we have seen a slight improvement in sales trends and we have made a good start to the new financial year. We look forward to reporting another year of progress and believe Smiths News is well positioned for future growth."

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