Companies: FIF    NBT    ZTR   

The AIM Index advanced from 1,055.4 to 1,087.8 points through January, bolstered by an array of corporate activity.

Website domain name specialist Group NBT has pulled off the £18.3 million acquisition of a Danish competitor that will almost double group revenues. Taking its offices into four more countries, the enlarged beast becomes the leading pan-European provider of domain name management services, and chief executive Geoff Wicks envisages much cross-selling to come too.

Cake and bread maker Finsbury Food (FIF) completed the reverse takeover of ‘celebration cake’ specialist Lightbody Group for £18.37 million in cash and loan notes. Purchasing the 100-year-old baker for £12 million more than Finsbury’s current AIM value is a big bite, but the company argues it ‘will help create the UK’s leading premium cake business’. To finance the deal, Finsbury is raising £10 million at 85p through broker Panmure Gordon, which explains the shares’ unspectacular increase by one penny on the day to 96.5p.

Back in the daily grind of the January results season, acquisitive confectioner-cum-health foods supplier Zetar (ZTR) posted an appetising pre-tax profit for the half to October, boosted by contributions from recent acquisitions including dried fruit and nut supplier Humdinger and chocolate- and yoghurt-coated specialist Salamanda.