Companies: CAE    GTL    IBL    IPO    IQE    OMH    SBE   

With the market for new issues showing serious signs of life once more, the Alternative Investment market is fast becoming the centre for this renewed activity.

For instance, the junior market has already welcomed IP2IPO, which was extremely well supported, attracting £30 million of new money to help commercialise intellectual property developed in several leading UK universities. Headed by chess grand master David Norwood, the venture managed to attract these fresh funds through a placing at 275p handled by KBC Peel Hunt. After a strong showing the shares have settled down at 330p.

New issues should dominate events on Aim for the rest of the year, with technology ventures proving especially prominent in the pipeline. Two such enterprises seeking funds at the moment include Pixology, a developer of technology to remove 'red eye' from photographs, and mobile phone ringtone group Monstermob.

At the same time, companies already listed on Aim are taking advantage of the recent gentler sentiment towards investment and conducting fundraisings of their own. Other constituents have been buoyed by new contract wins and positive trading updates. Overall, the Aim Index has risen four per cent to 781.7 over the past month.

First Calgary leads the way

Of those Aim companies raising additional finance, Canadian oil group First Calgary led the way, pulling C$140 million, or £65 million, through broker Canaccord and fellow Canadian investment bank Octogan Capital. The money will help develop its licences in Algeria. Shares in the company, also boosted by being chosen the best international venture on Aim, were carried up 17 per cent to 212.5p.

Another notable fundraiser in a particularly active oil and gas sector was Sibir Energy, a 'vertically integrated' oil company with production, refining and retailing interests in Russia. It raised £24 million in a placing at 16p. Sibir's shares rose ten per cent to 17.25p. GTL Resources, which is looking to build a gas-to-liquid plant in Western Australia, also strengthened ten per cent to 9.38p after securing £2.75 million at 10p.

Tech take-off

The more speculative technology plays also saw some renewed interest. IQE, the heavily loss-making manufacturer of customised 'epitaxial wafers' for the semiconductor industry, managed to secure £18.75 million to strengthen its balance sheet through a placing and open offer at 15p, underwritten by broker Evolution Beeson Gregory. Shares in the group, which moved to Aim from the Full List, bounced up 27 per cent to 19p.

Another Evolution client, Osmetech, reported success with a £2 million placing at 3p, saying that it 'should now have sufficient funds to fully support its existing operations' through to the launch of its integrated vaginal infection detection device in the first half of 2005. The money will be used primarily to help product development within the OPTI blood gas analyser business that it bought from Roche in March.

Elsewhere, fixed-line telecommunications provider GX Networks announced the takeover of highly profitable telecom and internet services business Pipex Internet for £55 million, partly financed by a £27 million placing. GX, soon to change its name to Pipex Communications, saw its shares advance 14 per cent to 7.5p.

Asda's Admiral deal

International Brand Licensing announced that the Asda supermarket chain, owned by US retail leviathan Wal-Mart, is to become the UK licensee for the group's Admiral clothing brand. The shares were catapulted up 156 per cent to 21.13p.

Embattled business and IT management consultancy Charteris also got a shot in the arm, moving up 18 per cent to 23.5p after winning a £2.3 million contract with medical device developer Kinetic Concepts. This should ensure a return to profit in the current financial year, after a £625,000 loss in the year to this July.

Engineer Booth Industries found favour, soaring 58 per cent to 22.5p after selling its Oakland Elevators subsidiary for £7.7 million. But Wealth Management Software crashed 34 per cent to 19.75p after Winterthur, one of its biggest customers, unexpectedly terminated its licence and support agreements with the company.

OMG eyes profit

After a first half in which it returned to profit, Oxford-based motion capture and visual effects specialist OMG recently revealed that second half revenues were more than 40 per cent higher compared to last year. This means that annual revenues were around £600,000 above those previously expected. OMG's shares have climbed 38 per cent to 21p over the month.

House broker Evolution Beeson Gregory was expecting break-even for the year to September, so investors should now expect profits for the company, which has contributed special effects to films including Gladiator, Star Wars and Harry Potter in recent times. Final figures can be expected soon.