They were now expecting it to turn in a small loss.Procare's market share of the dental supplies market, put at around 10 per cent when it was acquired, was now somewhere between 6 and 8 per cent, Mr Rabone said. As well as some loss of share to the operation's two or three bigger rivals, he said the accuracy of market information had been improved.He said they would not be taking any legal or other action against the vendors of Procare, however Ernst & Young, the group's auditors, have been asked to extend their review of the interim financial statements Management reporting systems have also been tightened up. VDC's interim results are expected to be released on 21 February.. British Gas brushed off recent pessimism about its share price performance yesterday when shares in its soon-to-be-demerged supply division, Centrica, began trading near the top end of analysts' expectations on the unofficial "grey market", writes Chris Godsmark. Centrica shares ended at 70.5p, valuing the company at almost pounds 3.2bn. Official trading begins next Monday, with the split from British Gas to be put to a shareholders' vote at an EGM tomorrow. Yesterday's indicative price suggests the misery for 1.8 million small investors could be overdone. Previous estimates of Centrica's value had varied wildly, with some analysts putting the share price as low as 25p and others higher than 90p.Simon Flowers, head of utilities at NatWest Securities, said: "The stock market has come to the conclusion that the assets are quite desirable and the liabilities are not as high as was previously thought."Shares in BG, the pipeline business, closed on the grey market at 172.5p British Gas shares were unchanged at 243.5p..

Toad, the loss-making car security group backed by Chris Evans, the biotech entrepreneur, saw nearly one-third of its stock market value wiped out yesterday following the surprise resignation of the chief executive, Charles Parker, after just over a month in the job. The company blamed "irreconcilable differences" between Mr Parker, who joined from the Charter industrial giant at the beginning of January, and the rest of the board. But the group also warned that sales in December and January had been "substantially below budget" due to disappointing trading through dealers and its own network of installers. Mr Parker, who is on a pounds 170,000 contract at 12 months notice, is to be replaced as chief executive by Kevin Gray, who became a non-executive director following the takeover of his Secur-Fix company last April.The shares, which recently moved from the Alternative Investment Market to a full listing, crashed 19.5p to 41.5p yesterday, wiping pounds 3.3m off the group's former market capitalisation of pounds 10.3m. The group has raised pounds 10.6m in two placings at 90p and 80p a share over the past 14 months, the latest in January.

but the shares have been sliding steadily since the start of the year, when they were trading at around 85p.Mr Evans, who chairs the group and owns around 20 per cent of the shares, said there was "nothing substantive" to account for the departure of Mr Parker There was "nothing massive No major falling out No bombshell," he said. He also dismissed any suggestion of Mr Parker uncovering a "black hole" at the group "If there was, we would have been obliged to reveal it. It was just a whole number of little things", Mr Evans said.The second-half loss for the group would be lower than for the comparable period of the previous year, but sales in January and February had been disappointing, he said. They were still on course for around pounds 5m sales for the year and a loss in the region of pounds 3.5m, roughly in line with previous market forecasts.He suggested compensation for loss of office would not be large.