Pick of the early market news

Martin Cloake

Feb 9th 2010

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Filed under: Company, Markets, Banking , Manufacturing, Retail

High street giants Boots and Mothercare are getting together to design, source and supply a new children's clothing and accessory brand. Mothercare Chief Executive Ben Gordon promises "a distinctive and quality product". Stores in the UK and Ireland will stock the brand exclusively.

Boots already sells toys from Mothercare's Early Learning Centre range in 400 of its 2,600 UK stores. Mothercare and ELC brands can be found in 1,111 stores in 52 countries. Boots is committed to developing strategic partnerships for growth, and these particular babies certainly seem to be booming.

Advances in the development of flu and AIDS vaccines helped secure record revenues and profits for Dutch biopharmaceutical company Crucell in 2009. Total revenues were up 26% to €358m, and net profit up 68% to €23.9m. Crucell is also developing rabies and malaria vaccines.

Smartish phone

Synchronica plc is to launch a "low-cost messaging-centric device" on Wednesday 10 February. The MessagePhone will feature an HTML browser, push email, sync services and access to social networking sites. The company sees it as "a cost-effective alternative to the lack of fixed-line/PC penetration".

Sarantel Group plc, which manufactures miniature antennas for mobile and wireless devices, has announced a 50% boost in revenues for the Year to 30 September 2009. Preliminary results show revenues of £2.8m on the back of strong growth in the GPS market.

Malay for today

Teliti International Ltd, the Malaysian computer systems and IT support services provider, is to float on London's Aim exchange. The company specialises in providing services to Malaysian government agencies, and expects to raise £12m when it floats, giving it a market value of £35m.

Virgin Money's offer for Church House Trust plc, announced on 27 January 2010, has been accepted by CHT shareholders and the offer is now closed.

The purchase of the Somerset-based bank leaves Virgin poised to enter the high street banking market.

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