Just two quick updates to start the day. Firstly, I mentioned Avanti Communications yesterday and today they have announced a significant contract win with Telkom SA.

http://uk.advfn.com/news/UKREG/2015/article/69131621

Two hugely important bits for me are:-

"This multi-year commitment is expected to make a significant contribution to filling HYLAS 2 and HYLAS 4 South African capacity in a market that is developing well for Avanti."

"Avanti has now won contracts with the incumbent national telecoms companies in all of its core African markets, in-line with its announced strategy."

Avanti has been a target of shorting campaigns in the past, but most recently they have shown significant progress and appear to be answering their critics. This contract provides further confirmation that the business is now gaining momentum. I am becoming more confident that they have turned the corner towards achieving their stated goals.

News indirectly from another of my holdings this morning. Direct Line Insurance have released their third quarter trading update this morning and it reads well for Trakm8's supply of telematics devices:-

"The Group continues to build on its current strong market positions by identifying and investing in market developments that it believes can contribute to future growth. In particular, Motor has continued to grow its telematics-based insurance, with a 76% increase during 2015 to 67,000 in-force policies."

I'll update the blog later in the day.

Bought back into Biome Technologies today, not a huge stake, but enough to keep me interested. Biome is a company I held shares in earlier this year when I bought at prices around the 80p mark. Within a few months the SP had improved significantly. The half-year results however didn't impress, and I took a 75% profit.

The trading statement today has tempted back in though. It looks encouraging, and they look set to beat market expectations for the full year. Total group revenues in the third quarter were up 169% at £1.3m and group revenues for the nine month period are 18% ahead of last year at £3.3m.

Both the bioplastics and radio frequency technology businesses are doing well. Order visibility for both divisions is looking good for the rest of this year and into 2016. Significantly the group reported a small EBITDA profit in the third quarter, and cash balances appear to be stabilising. They have £1.7m in cash on the balance sheet just £0.1m less than 30th June this year. If you strip out intangibles, even after today's share price rise, the market cap. is not far above NTAV. The current market cap. is around £3.4m whilst NTAV is £2.7m. If you include intangibles then the market cap. is below NAV (£4m). At the interims gross margins had improved from 35% to 39%.

Biome has been a serial disappointer in the past and understandably early investors are sceptical. The shares are highly illiquid, and the spread is off-putting.  However, Biome may well have reached an inflexion point in their development, management believe so with Paul Mines saying the following:-

"Revenue generation is strong in both divisions and, coupling this with the achievement of a small group EBITDA profit in the quarter, we are increasingly confident that 2015 will become a very significant milestone in Biome's development."