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Our roundup of Canadian small-caps making news and on the move today.

Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp., which had delayed releasing its financial results due to an internal accounting audit, Monday released fourth-quarter results. Revenue rose to $259.3-million from $205.3-million a year earlier. Adjusted net earnings came in at 14 cents a share, up from 8 cents a year earlier. The Street was looking for revenue of $233.4-million and EPS of 10 cents.

Algonquin Monday also revealed more details of why it postponed its financial results earlier this month. "Shortly before the previously scheduled release of its 2014 financial results, APUC became aware of certain anonymous, unproven allegations regarding certain APUC personnel. APUC shared the allegations with its auditors, and delayed releasing its financial results in order to consider, together with the auditors, whether certain of the allegations which related to APUC's financial reporting and related practices could impact its financial results. This assessment, which was led by a committee of independent directors with the assistance of independent legal and accounting advisors, is now complete ... having determined that the allegations did not impact the financial results. The committee's investigation into the allegations which are not related to APUC's financial reporting and related practices, is continuing to be dealt with in a confidential manner in accordance with APUC's complaint-handling policies," the company said in a statement.

Though the company's statement clarifies why it delayed reporting its earnings, Algonquin did not reveal what allegations it became aware of or which company personnel they targeted. The delay led to a 17-per-cent drop in Algonquin's share price over two days of trading earlier this month and spurred an investigation by Ontario-based law firm Siskinds LLP, which said it was evaluating a possible class action law suit.

BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. analyst Ben Pham said that while the key takeaway from the disclosure is that there are no issues with Algonquin's financial disclosures or accounting practices, "some questions still remain unanswered."

The analyst also noted that Algonquin's earnings beat was driven largely by higher-than-expected revenues from its renewable energy projects, as well the contribution of a strong U.S. dollar.

Algonquin shares were up more than 7 per cent in afternoon trading Monday.

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Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. shares have plunged more than 12 per cent in late trading Monday after the crude and natural gas producer announced its contract to operate the Rubiales and Piriri oil fields will not be extended. The Canadian producer has been operating the Rubiales, Colombia's largest oil field, under an agreement with Colombia-based Ecopetrol.

The interest accounts for about 30 per cent of Pacific Rubiales's total production. The company will continue to operate the oil field until the current contract expires in June of 2016.

Ecopetrol said it "will be examining different options for the operation of the Rubiales field." The company added that Pacific Rubiales will explore the possibility of presenting a proposal to operate this asset, perhaps leaving the door open to a new agreement.

Monday's selloff is the latest in what has been a difficult year for Pacific Rubiales. The stock is down drastically from its 52-week high of $23.86 in June, with shares opening at $3.09 Monday.

Pacific Rubiales has also tripled its debt since the end of 2012 to about $4.6 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The company operates in Peru, Guatemala, Philippines, as well as Colombia.

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Ensign Energy Services Inc. reported fourth-quarter revenue of $602.6-million, up from $536.0-million a year earlier. Adjusted net income per share was 29 cents, up from 18 cents. The results beat the market consensus that called for revenue of $596.4-million and EPS of 24 cents.

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SouthGobi Resources Ltd. announced that Enkh-Amgalan Sengee, president and CEO, resigned to pursue other opportunities.

Ted Chan, who has recently been appointed executive director, will assume the duties formerly handled by Mr. Sengee until further notice, the company said.

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Pure Gold Mining Inc. announced it has intersected high-grade gold mineralization from the Beta Target, a second geologic structure tested at its ongoing Russet South drilling program, located on the company's Madsen gold project in the prolific Red Lake gold district of northwest Ontario.

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Teranga Gold Corp. announced receipt of the environmental approval required to proceed with the development of its high-grade Gora project. Gora, the company's first satellite deposit as well as its first discovery on its large regional land package, is situated 25 kilometres from the existing mill.

"We are delighted to report that it is full steam ahead on the Gora project," said Richard Young, CEO of Teranga, in a statement. "Work has begun on road construction from Sabodala to Gora and we expect to be processing ore from Gora through our mill by the fourth quarter."

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GuestLogix Inc., a provider of payment technology to airlines and the passenger travel industry, announced that it has started implementing Crypto-currency wallet components on its Transaction Processing Engine to enable the acceptance of Bitcoin and similar virtual currencies on its widely used retail platform.

By adding a virtual currency wallet to the TPE, acceptance of Bitcoin will become readily available on GuestLogix' custom handheld POS terminals and mobile POS platform for Android OS, iOS and MS Windows Mobile. This will allow airlines, as well as other operators and brands within the travel segment, to be able to accept payments in virtual currencies in a secure and reliable manner at all access points such as mobile applications, at kiosks, on handheld POS devices as well as in-flight entertainment systems onboard aircraft, the company said.

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Amorfix Life Sciences Ltd., a biotechnology company focused on diagnostics and therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases, announced that its board has authorized the company to review all strategic alternatives available to it. This includes a possible sale of all or part of the assets of the company.

"The board of directors fully appreciates that the company's limited cash resources and liquidity constraints has affected the Company's ability to maintain operations in the future," said William Wyman, chairman of Amorfix, in a statement. "We had hoped to address that situation with additional debt or equity financings of the Company, but have been unable to do so. As a result, Amorfix will consider selling all or a portion of its assets or consider other strategic alternatives to further develop its neuro-biological and other scientific initiatives and maximize long-term shareholder value."

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Legumex Walker Inc. announced that its board has initiated "a process to identify and consider strategic and financial alternatives available to the company with the ultimate goal of maximizing shareholder value."

The company's board believes the share price has "not been reflective of the fundamental value inherent in the company."

The company has established a special committee composed of independent directors to oversee the strategic review process. These may include a strategic financing, merger or other business combination, or a sale of the company.

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Northern Blizzard Resources Inc. reported its fourth-quarter results, with production of 22,808 barrels of oil equivalent rising 12 per cent from the previous quarter. Funds from operations were $61.4-million in the quarter, a rise of 2 per cent from a year earlier.

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ProMetic Life Sciences Inc. announced that it will be added to the S&P/TSX Composite Index, effective after the close of trading this Friday,  as a result of the quarterly review of the index.

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STT Enviro Corp. says it has closed its non-brokered private placement by issuing 9,985,002 common shares at a price of 20 cents (U.S.) (about 25 cents Canadian) per common share for total proceeds of nearly $2-million ($2.6-million Canadian). "The proceeds of the offering will be used for general corporate purposes, and to strengthen the company's balance sheet in order to position the company to take advantage of future growth opportunities, including acquisitions," the company said.

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CanWel Building Materials Group Ltd. has declared a quarterly dividend of 14 cents per share that will be paid on April 15, to shareholders of record on March 31.

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Midas Gold Corp. says Vista Gold Corp. has completed the sale of 8 million shares of Midas Gold Corp. that it held to institutional and other investors at a price of 46 cents (Canadian) per share. As a result of the sale, Vista now holds 5.5 per cent of Midas Gold's shares, down from 11.2 per cent before the sale. "As a result of this sale and the consequential change of ownership, Vista is no longer a reporting insider of Midas Gold," the company said. "As a condition of the sale of the shares, Midas Gold understands that Vista has agreed not to sell any of its remaining shares in Midas Gold for a period of six months from closing."

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Dorel Industries Inc. reported its fourth-quarter financial results, which showed basic earnings per share of $0.34 for the three months ended Dec. 31, compared to $0.38 in the same period one year ago. Revenue, meanwhile, increased by 10.7 per cent over that time. "Overall performance in 2014 was better than the previous year," said company CEO Martin Schwartz. "This is a tribute to our executive teams in all three segments as we maintained a strict focus on the businesses even while planning the future of the juvenile segment and rebuilding Dorel Sports."

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Patient Home Monitoring Corp. said it has executed a letter of intent to acquire a Tennesee-based medical equipment company for $14.3-million. Meanwhile, the company cancelled a separate letter of intent for a Georgia-based company, saying the two companies were unable to reach an agreement on the terms of the deal. "In the coming quarters, we are poised to complete the several acquisitions announced this year, almost doubling our revenue, significantly increasing EBITDA, and perhaps most importantly, adding over 90,000 patients to our database," said Michael Dalsin, chairman of Patient Home Monitoring.

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Rio Alto Mining Ltd. said that its fourth-quarter net income amounted to $1.5-million. "I am very pleased with the company's operational and financial performance for 2014," said Alex Black, Rio Alto's CEO. "The net cash generated from operations during the fourth quarter of $39.2-million was an outstanding result. Our focused management team at La Arena has been able to deliver costs at, or below our low end of guidance and comfortably exceeded our high end of gold production guidance."

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With files from Bloomberg

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