Changes at the summit of specialist lender Provident Financial were announced in the last week.

Managing Director of the International Division, David Swann, will retire at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting. Current Finance Director John Harnett will replace him. In turn Andrew Fisher, who has been Finance Director at Premier Farnell for 11 years, will replace him.

The market perceives this change to be positive but not a major alteration in the company's structure.

Bradford-based manufacturer of industrial and commercial equipment Slingsby has agreed the sale of its premises on Preston Street. The consideration received will be £3.025m. Slingsby's warehousing facilities will remain in Preston Street as the company has negotiated a short-term lease back as its new site is being developed. Slingsby will be relocating its warehousing facilities to Baildon. It has a rich heritage in the region and its history can be traced back to 1893, later becoming a public company in 1961. The share price has shown a virtually flat performance in the last twelve months following an excellent 2004 in which the shares rose over 100 per cent.

Filtronic restated its results for the year ended May 31 2006 under the new International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). All companies listed in the European Union are obliged to use the IFRS accounting standards from 2005. The results were boosted because the new system treats goodwill and its defined benefit pension differently.

Goodwill is the value attributed to a business that is not tangible, but arises from the reputation, expertise, service or other intangible asset. Net profit rose to £9.3m compared to £5.3m under the old system.

On Thursday Leeds Group, the finance company which that lends money to catering, hospitality and leisure companies, had its Annual General Meeting. Vin Murria, the non-executive chairman told shareholders that the sales in the first quarter of their financial year had begun well and were up 25 per cent. He was very upbeat about the record levels of business on the firms order book.

There were also tantalising indications regarding the state of the cash reserves following the disposal of Leeds Leasing plc to Bibby Asset Finance Ltd. Avenues are being explored for the use of the money for the benefit of shareholders.