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Aerospace supplies specialist Aero Inventory (AI.) was the pick of AIM this week, seeing its shares soar 18 per cent to a 12-month high of 502.5p. The provider of web-based ways of tracking aeroplane parts reported a 332 per cent leap in pre-tax profits to £7.2 million on sales more than doubled to £43.6 million during the year to June.

In March the group, which has won a number of long-term contracts in Europe and the Far East over the past year, raised £5 million at 340p a share. Chief executive Rupert Lewin is optimistic that further strong growth is possible in the current year, as the new contracts come into effect for a full year for the first time.

Brokers believe pre-tax profits will jump 57 per cent to £11.3 million, putting the shares on a forward p/e of 10.8. That is reasonably cheap given the stellar growth displayed.

XL Tech tanks

Despite Aero Inventory’s surge, the AIM Index fell 9.2 points to 1,100.7. The main drag was tech-based investment companies, XL Tech (XLT), off 24 per cent at 252.5p, and IP2IPO (IPO), down 20p to 542.5p. Both have benefited from the past year’s new issues frenzy, allowing them to spin off fledgling companies at heady valuations. However, this window is starting to close and two such spin-offs encountered difficulties.

Carbon credits provider AgCert (AGC), in which XL Tech has a 27 per cent stake, halved after reporting delays in setting up its methane combustion sites and the resignation of chief executive Alan Tank. The shares now stand at 140p – the price at which AgCert floated on the Full List in early June, raising £61 million.

Offshore Hydrocarbon off course

There was equally poor news at Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping (OHM), down 27 per cent to 69.5p. The company has been forced to pay £120,000 costs to rival Statoil in connection with a patent dispute. This means the developer of an oil and gas surveying system trades at 60 per cent below the 140p price at which it floated in March 2004. Statoil first contested ownership of the patent a month before the flotation.

IP2IPO retains a 16 per cent stake in the business, but appears to be shrugging off the problem by focusing on its interests in 33 other concerns. This week the group announced that another of its oil services investments, Getech, in which it has a 21 per cent holding, will shortly float on AIM.

IP2IPO also reported interims, showing a £3.6 million pre-tax profit and net assets of £122.7 million at the end of June. The group’s market cap is nearly double that at £243 million, which might be too heady for some, particularly if the flotation window is closing.

Don’t sneeze at Allergy Therapeutics

A recent AIM arrival with more solid prospects is vaccines developer Allergy Therapeutics (AGY). This group has an established business, which this week reported sales up a fifth to £22.9 million. However, £5.6 million of planned R&D costs pushed the group into the red.

Allergy wants to obtain US registration for its innovative allergy vaccine that can be delivered in just four shots rather than the dozens previously required. Major Phase III trials will commence next summer. These should be successful as the product is already being prescribed in Germany.

Consequently R&D expenses will rise again this year. But with half of the US population affected by one or more allergens, the potential is immense for a product that could cure the problem of hay-fever and other irritations rather than just treat the symptoms. The shares advanced just a penny to 113.5p.

Elsewhere, shares in loss-making Azure Dynamics (ADC), developer of hybrid electric vehicles, were jolted up 20 per cent to 59p as Canada's largest courier company, Purolator ordered 115 of the novel vans.

Oil hopefuls

Isle of Man-based Hardy Oil & Gas (HDY) is expanding in India and eyeing Nigeria after lifting pre-tax profits 70 per cent to £2.6 million in the six months to June. Shares in Hardy, which raised £15 million at float, have risen 45 per cent in barely three months to 208.5p, where the company is valued at £109 million.

Energy lawyer Peter Felter and oilman Graham Burgess, with the help of broker Charles Stanley, want to raise £5 million in an AIM float for Sovereign Oil Services. Pricing has not yet been finalised but dealings should start towards the end of the month. Sovereign’s activities include taking personnel to oil rigs and making diamond drilling tips.

Felter, a pillar of lawyer Clyde & Co's energy practice, and Burgess, formerly of US oil giant Texaco, were leading lights of AIM-quoted MOS International, where the 2001 float price of 4p had fallen to below 1p when they both resigned for ‘personal reasons’ in 2003.

Finally Betex, which recently won a £5 million contract to co-manage the state sports lottery of the Chinese province of Guizhou, has appointed broker Numis to advise on its planned float, set to take place in November. The OFEX-listed company, run by Dr Johnny Hon, is understood to have first explored the possibility of raising the subsequent £7 million on OFEX, but decided AIM would be more appropriate.