Tour companies were at the centre of attention in the FTSE 250 this week as beleaguered group Thomas Cook (LON:TCG) announced it is to close 200 UK stores over the next two years as huge write-downs sent it deep into the red.
The heavily–indebted group posted a loss of £398 million in the year to September after £428 million of write-downs and impairments. Revenues rose 10% to £9.8 billion from £8.9 billion.
Underlying profits fell by £58 million to £304 million, as UK bookings were hit by the economic uncertainty while France suffered due to the impact of the Arab Spring on travel to North Africa.
Cook added that the first quarter had also got off to a slow start, though this a seasonally quieter time of the year for the business. Due a recent promotion early summer bookings for the UK were 8% ahead of prior year.
Earlier this month, rival TUI travel (LON:TT.) revealed that it posted operating profits of £471 million in the year to September, near the top end of market forecasts.
Pre-tax profits were £144 million against a loss of £73 million, while revenues rose by 9% to £14.7 billion.
The group saw record profits in Britain, the Nordic region, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada and Austria, in stark contrast to the problems that have hit Thomas Cook.
Fellow FTSE 250 constituent IT firm Logica (LON:LOG) said it was speeding up restructuring and cutting 1,300 jobs due to the decline in European markets.
Many of its clients were delaying short term expenditure and reducing discretionary investments to weather an uncertain economic future, the company said.
Consequently, the weaknesses seen in September have widened.
The firm which offers consulting and IT services now expects full year revenue growth to be around 3 per cent, and underlying profitability in the range of £240m to £250 million.
Staying in the FTSE 250, business software company Micro Focus International (LON:MCRO) announced details of its recently announced plan to return 45 pence a share to investors, approximately £83.6 million or US$130.6 million in aggregate.
The group had a rocky ride in 2011, with several profit warnings, results falling short of expectations, a chief executive leaving and takeover talks collapsing.
Moving to small caps, sports apparel and equipment company Respect Your Universe (OTC:RYUN) is to be an official sponsor for five Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) events in Las Vegas.
The first bout with the firm's involvement begins later this month - on December 30, it said.
As an official event sponsor, the company will be visible in various forms, including logo displays and live announcements.
The firm' presence on UFC.com will include rotating ads equating to tens of millions of impressions and it will have various items from its new clothing line available for purchase at UFCStore.com.
In the biotech sector, Oxford Pharmascience (LON:OXP) has agreed a distribution deal to sell its products across the Far East and African markets.
The deal is with Mega Lifesciences Ltd. The new partner will distribute OXP’s calcium chews alongside its existing product sales to the specifically identified countries.
"We continue to look for opportunities to expand our existing chew business and the agreement with Mega will help us target sales across a number of smaller territories.
“Mega has a distribution infrastructure network which is ideal for our calcium chew product," said chief executive Nigel Theobold.
Crop health specialist Plant Impact PLC (LON:PIM) said apart from its continued focus in the "near" markets of the UK, Netherlands, France and Germany, it also expects to grow its business in the 2012 calendar year into the US turf market via its strategic partnership with Arysta LifeScience, targeting the golf course market there.
The comments came as the company, which develops and markets crop yield enhancing products, reported its results for the six months to September 30 2011.
During the period, in May, Arysta took a 9.1 percent stake in the company at a significant premium to the share price and in August, Arysta veteran John Brubaker took over the helm as Plant Impact chief executive.
Elsewhere in the sector, Renovo Group (LON:RNVO) said it will now start the share buy-back that was announced in August 2011 and approved by shareholders at the AGM in September.
The company said this week that the order of the High Court confirming the capital reduction has now been registered, and it can begin to buy back up to 47,424,744 ordinary shares, representing not more than 25 per cent of the capital.
Renovo will pay a minimum of 10 pence a share, the nominal value, and at the most it will pay an amount equal to 105 per cent of the five business days average immediately preceding the buy-back day.
The acquired shares will either be cancelled or held in treasury for an employees' share scheme or later cancellation.
In other news, intellectual property commercialisation company Fusion IP (LON:FIP) announced a 'significant' new drug development licence, which is expected to achieve peak royalties for the company of £1 million per year.
The firm, which commercialises university-generated intellectual property (IP), told investors this week that it had signed a license deal with a pharmaceutical company using IP from the University of Sheffield to develop the known drug.
The drug is for use in certain endocrine gland diseases - a market worth in excess of $500 million per year, said the firm.
It is already being marketed for a different treatment and the probability of a successful launch is considered to be high, it added.