LONDON (ShareCast) - Lansdowne Oil has agreed a farm-in option deal with Island Expro Limited, a subsidiary of Island Oil and Gas for Licence 4/07 in the Celtic Sea, offshore Ireland.

If exercised, Island will carry out the drilling and testing of a farm-in well before 31 July 2010. Island would become the operator and acquire a 58.34% interest, with Lansdowne retaining a 41.66% interest.

Shares in Vernalis jumped after the drug group said cash resources will fund the company for the next two years as it announced the sale of Apokyn and its US operations to Ipsen for up to $17.5m.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ipsen will pay an initial cash consideration of $6.5m and further milestone consideration of up to $6m. Ipsen has also agreed to take a $5m equity stake in Vernalis, at a subscription price of 7.26p per share, representing a 20% premium to the average closing price on the previous three trading days.

“Vernalis has six promising products in clinical development and collaborations with Novartis, Biogen Idec and Servier among others. We look forward to rebuilding significant shareholder value in the mid-term through progression of our promising R&D pipeline,” said executive chairman Peter Fellner.

Shares in Delta rallied after the trustee of the Delta pension plan has agreed the purchase of a bulk annuity from specialist pension manager Pension Insurance to reduce the size of the company's pension plan liabilities.

Delta will contribute £49.7m to the plan towards the total bulk annuity purchase price of £450.9m. The group's contribution will be treated as an exceptional item. The added that trading profit and cash flow before exceptional items are now expected to exceed earlier expectations.

Central China Goldfields moved ahead on an upbeat drilling report from its Dong Mao Huo gold project. " Results from are East Hill are particularly pleasing, as this is an area that has not been tested in detail before. Surface and pit sampling here indicate the area's potential to host a low-grade open pit oxide deposit over an area of 180 m x 60 m. The results from the West Hill further confirm this area's potential for an open-pit oxide gold deposit," managing director Jeff Malaihollo said.

Fashion chain Alexon is maintaining margins despite weakened consumer demand and the poor weather. Trade during the first 18 weeks of the company’s financial year has been in line with expectations for both Alexon Brands and Bay Trading.

• News Channel