Man Group (LON:EMG) said that it had funds under management of US$69 billion at 31 March 2011 compared to US$68.6 billion at the end of 2010. The company expects to post pre-tax profits from continuing operations of an estimated $280 million and adjusted pre-tax profits of US$560 million for the year to 31 March.
Desire Petroleum (LON:DES) announced the spudding of the 14/15-3 exploration well on the Ninky prospect, which occurred overnight. The well has a planned total depth of circa 2,620 metres and drilling operations are expected to take approximately 30 days.
Rockhopper Exploration (LON:RKH) has a 7.5 percent interest in the well.
San Leon Energy (LON:SLE) is entering one of the most active and important periods in its history, according to chairman Oisin Fanning. In this morning’s operational update the AIM-listed explorer catalogued the ongoing work across the San Leon project portfolio - with work underway in Poland, Morocco, Ireland, Albania, Iraq and Netherlands.
Shares in Mouchel Group (LON:MCHL) tumbled 35 percent after the company announced that the board has decided that it is not in shareholders' interests to proceed with any further takeover discussions with Interserve or Costain.
Polo Resources (LON:POL) announced that following a purchase on the same day of 5.1 million shares Company at a price of 5.22 pence per share, executive co-chairman and managing director Neil Herbert is interested in a total of 78.2 million shares, representing approximately 3.31 percent of Polo.
Ithaca Energy (LON:IAE, CVE:IAE) said drilling operations have restarted on the J03 well on the Jacky field in the UK North Sea. The company had suspended drilling a week ago due to mechanical issues on the Energy Enhancer jack-up drilling unit.
Baobab Resources (LON:BAO) is planning to drill the Tenge-Ruoni prospect next month after it received ‘spectacular’ results from an airborne geophysical survey. Babobab said that a coherent 3.5 kilometre long, folded trend of strong magnetic response underlies the Tenge-Ruoni magnetite prospect. It also highlighted that field investigations indicate an average mineralised width of 75 metres to 100 metres and first pass rock chip sampling has returned head grades averaging 48.9 percent iron.