Majestic Wine to Focus on Retail Growth

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MAJESTIC WINE PLC (MJW.LN), the wine retailer, will focus on retail growth by opening new stores and reducing its wholesale trade, its chief executive said Monday, adding that he remains comfortable with consensus estimates for fiscal 2014. "Wholesale (trade) is of lower margin and we need that wine in our retail stores to fuel our retail growth," Steve Lewis told Dow Jones Newswires in a telephone interview.

At 1430 GMT shares +4.25 pence, 0.9%, at 459.0 pence.

BATM ADVANCED COMMUNICATIONS LTD (BVC.LN), the telecommunications and medical technology group, said that a consortium including BATM has been selected to establish Israel's third communications infrastructure venture. No financial details have been disclosed.

Shares +1.0 pence, or 6.7%, at 16.0 pence.

LAMPRELL PLC (LAM.LN), an oil rig engineer, said it has arranged new secured banking facilities with a reduced number of five core lending banks.

The new $181 million facility arrangement is comprised of a $100 million term loan, called facility A, a $60 million term loan, called facility B, and a $21 million revolving credit facility.

Shares +5.5 pence, or 3.9%, at 148.0 pence.

NEW WORLD OIL & GAS PLC (NEW.LN), a Denmark and Belize-focused oil company, said it has secured a six-month extension to its work program commitment deadlines for licenses 1/09 and 2/09 at its Danica Jutland project in Western Denmark.

Shares -0.08 pence, or 8.8%, at 0.78 pence.

ARIANA RESOURCES PLC (AAU.LN), a Turkey-focused gold miner, said it has signed an equity swap agreement and also conditionally raised GBP1.25 million, before expenses, from the issue of 125 million new shares to Lanstead Capital L.P., to help develop the company's Red Rabbit Project in western Turkey.

Shares -0.03 pence, or 2.2%, at 1.1 pence.

ITHACA ENERGY INC. (IAE.T), a North Sea-focused oil company, said it has agreed to sell to Edison International (EIX) a 25% interest in its licenses containing the Handcross prospect, and has also signed an agreement with Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA.LN), selling it a 50% stake in U.K. license P2048.

Shares +1.5 pence, or 1.3%, at 116.0 pence.

GEOPARK HOLDINGS LTD. (GPK.LN), a Latin America-focused oil and gas company, said it has successfully brought onto production the Tarotaro 1 exploration well on the Llanos 34 Block in Colombia, in which it has a 45% interest.

Shares +32.5 pence, or 5.7%, at 602.5 pence.

FTSE Small-Cap +0.8%

AIM +0.05%

Write to Iain Packham, Jana Weigand, Rory Gallivan and Tapan Panchal at [e-mail]

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