Small Companies Notebook: Wounded 3DM looks to results to silence critics

The most eagerly anticipated results due from AIM are the delayed full-year figures from 3DM Worldwide, a company at the centre of an extraordinary bear raid. An anonymous dossier on the company has been circulating in the City over the past few days, prompting a furious response from the company and its fans. They insist the results will put an end to the sniping.

The most eagerly anticipated results due from AIM are the delayed full-year figures from 3DM Worldwide, a company at the centre of an extraordinary bear raid. An anonymous dossier on the company has been circulating in the City over the past few days, prompting a furious response from the company and its fans. They insist the results will put an end to the sniping.

An Oxfordshire company, 3DM has invented a revolutionary manufacturing technology: a plastics moulding process it calls powder impression moulding (PIM). The process uses recycled material and is energy efficient, and the resultant product can be made as strong as steel. We have reported in this column before the buzz being generated by a string of licensing deals with other companies hoping to use PIM for new products, including yachts, scaffolding and fences.

It is these deals that are the subject of the bear raiders' innuendo. Most of the licensees are start-up ventures, and several are run by former 3DM executives. 3DM has also paid for equity stakes in several of its partners. No household names have taken on the technology.

For its part, 3DM argues these sorts of deals are the quickest and most sensible way of getting a revolutionary technology developed. Of course former directors are going to be fans of PIM and have their own ideas for start-up companies that could use the technology, it says.

The case against 3DM is being argued by Tom Winnifrith, the former presenter of Channel 4's dot.com era game show Show Me The Money, through his online tipsheet, t1ps. He says the company has refused to answer simple questions about its business partners, but admits he might "look a right Charlie" if the 2003 results answer all his objections.

The delay as the results are checked with advisers has frustrated fans of 3DM, who watched as £16m was wiped off the value of the company last week, leaving it valued at £61m. They hope for a company statement this week, and 3DM certainly has to file figures before the end of the month or face being suspended from AIM.

NWD plans bids

Word is that NWD, the acquisitive marketing services group, is out on the fundraising trail again, looking to raise £5m for an audacious three-way takeover. It has broached its plans to snap up smaller competitors with existing shareholders. The shares have underperformed this year, but last week NWD revealed that its Twentyfirst Century corporate communications subsidiary has beaten trading expectations since being acquired last December. Twentyfirst Century was part of a previous mega-deal, acquired along with two other firms thanks to a £2.2m equity fundraising.

Wooing the City

The defence and database software group CodaSciSys has been picking itself up after a profits warning last year and the failure of negotiations over the sale of two of its three divisions back in March. It has scheduled a "City workshop" late this month to set out its strategy for investors and to go into detail about the prospects for each division. The hope is this event signals a new confidence from the company, particularly since it will be entering the second half of the year, when it has promised a pick-up in profits.

The company grew out of the European space programme in the Eighties and has technology for tracking satellites and deciphering the information they send back. Its uses include predicting weather patterns sweeping in, or enemy aircraft approaching troops on the battlefield.

Firestone sign-up

It has been a long time coming, but Firestone Diamonds really appears to be just weeks away from signing a partner to help extract whatever gems it has in the ground at Mopipi, Botswana.

The talks, rumoured to be with De Beers, have been at "an advanced stage" for eight months, but insiders believe they will conclude in time to be part of the company's planned "six announcements in six weeks". The string of news releases, that began last week with results from a US diamond exploration project, is also likely to include the start of production at its third South African mine and the granting of additional exploration permits.

SR Pharma double

There has been a bit of a coup at SR Pharma, in both senses of the word.

Eric Boyle quit as the chairman of the loss-making and perennially disappointing biotech group last month, after "discussions with the board". He thanked shareholders for their "enduring patience".

It is also something of a coup to have secured two new non-executive directors in the shape of Peter Reynolds, who has a string of small quoted company directorships, and Iain Ross, a former executive at Celltech and an adviser to Apax Partners, the venture capital group.

Their connections should help SR in its new-found aim of spurring merger and acquisition activity in the sector. Keep an eye on its progress.

Avanti Communications

Avanti works in what it calls "screenmedia", in which companies such as high street bars, retailers or hairdressers create an in-store TV channel to promote their brands and products, entertain customers and generate advertising revenue. Avanti, which has been going since 1996, offers advice on strategy, content production, advertising sales and research.

Under its chief executive David Williams, it has just broken into profit and its broker, Seymour Pierce, hopes to raise £3m with a flotation on AIM.

One of the non-executives is John French, the serial entrepreneur behind companies such as the surveillance technology group Croma and the loss adjusters Claims People.