Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

Tandem, up 80 per cent on the week, was the best performer after it announced a return to profits in the year to January, £511,000 up compared to a loss of over £2m in the previous year. The accompanying statement expressed optimism about the current year and said overheads would continue to be monitored even through the focus would now be on increasing the level of turnover.

Centurion Electronics rose 15 per cent. Robert Persey and Amanda Persey now have a combined beneficial interest in 3,727,800 shares, 27.25 per cent of the issued share capital.

Choices UK recovered 13 per cent over the week, after falling 75 per cent in the previous fortnight and ann-ounced that Iain Muspratt, a founding shareholder and former chairman and chief executive, is to step down from the board with immediate effect.

John Sealey, group FD, has also resigned from the board but will continue to serve as company secretary with his position being taken by Chris White, the operations director.

Rightmove, up 13 per cent, said in a trading statement that it expects the pre-tax profit for the year to exceed its previous expectations by about 10 per cent, and that its current year trading to date has been very positive with higher-than-expected customer acquisition levels and robust sales of its RightmoveChoice suite of products launched in January.

nCipher has posted the tender offer to its shareholders giving them the right to tender 41.6 per cent of their shareholdings at 285p a share.

The tender should return £34m to shareholders. Each of the directors intends to tender an amount up to their basic entitlement amount, which in total would currently represent approximately 3.38 per cent of the current issued shares.

Antennas specialist Sarantel Group fell 28 per cent and issued a statement that it was in advanced discussions with its major existing investors on a fundraising to meet its ongoing working capital needs and would make a further announcement as soon as possible.