Investors in Venture Production might be forgiven for scrutinising yesterday’s first-half trading update a little less closely than usual. That is because they are no more than a dozen days away from an announcement that is likely to have a more significant bearing on the share price of the North Sea oil and gas producer: whether or not Centrica, a Venture customer and 23.5 per cent shareholder, will mount a hostile bid.

Under the “put up or shut up” deadline set by the Takeover Panel, the owner of British Gas has until the close of business on July 13 either to table an offer for Venture or walk away — and stay away for the following six months.

Centrica’s problem is partly because of prevarication. Had it moved swiftly in March — when it built its stake at 725p a share, a 25 per cent premium to the market price at that time — it might have mopped up Venture’s entire share capital at a level not much higher. Since then, not only has sentiment on equities improved, but oil prices have also gained more than 40 per cent. This suggests that, with Venture’s shares now at 836½p, investors are likely to hold out for a reasonable premium — say, 950p a share or above — implying a £1.5 billion or so price tag at which Centrica’s backers might balk.

For its part, Venture appears to be doing just fine on its own. Average daily production has risen to nearly 53,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, up 16 per cent on the year, while a recently successful drilling programme in the southern North Sea and eastern Irish Sea augurs well for the growth of its medium-term reserves. Venture also continues to trade its assets to good effect, selling minority stakes in a clutch of gasfields to Nuon Energy, of the Netherlands, last month for £96 million — a price that translates to roughly £14 a share, if extrapolated across the company’s entire portfolio. That disposal has further strengthened Venture’s cash-laden balance sheet, giving it firepower to pick up the UK acreage being discarded by bigger producers, its traditional strength. The planned disposal of North Sea assets by Eni, of Italy, shows that opportunity has not gone away.

Centrica has other projects to keep it busy. It recently bought a 45 per cent stake in a gas development block in Trinidad, which, together with its interest in the Isle of Grain liquefied natural gas terminal, is a reminder that it has alternatives to meeting its UK gas needs other than buying local producers — namely, shipping it in from further afield.

Second-guessing Centrica is hazardous, but the assumption must be that, having blocked out potential rival predators, it can afford to sit on its hands and return at a later date. If that is the case, any share price weakness in Venture on its withdrawal should be used to buy.

AstraZeneca

Yesterday’s failed blockbuster drug can be tomorrow’s niche therapy. That would appear to be the prognosis from AstraZeneca, which yesterday won European marketing approval for Iressa, its once-a-day lung cancer pill.

Shareholders will recall Iressa as one of AZ’s big hopes from earlier this decade that, since its knockback in clinical trials five years ago, has been all but written off. The remedy brought no significant survival benefits to the majority of patients, but it did have a pronounced effect on a tightly prescribed set: Asian women who had never smoked.

That encouraged AZ to persist, such that, after further trials, it launched Iressa in Japan and now has cleared it for sale in Europe. Analysts at Panmure Gordon reckon that annual revenues from Iressa in Europe and, potentially, the United States should reach more than double the $265 million booked in Asia last year. More broadly, it provides hope that other damaged goods lying in the medicine chests of the drugs makers could have a second life when the search for cures-for-all has been replaced by a more targeted approach: so-called “personalised medicine”, tailored to genetic profiles.

AZ does have some promising remedies in the pipeline. It will learn by the end of this month whether it has won US approval for Onglyza, its treatment for type-2 diabetes. Peak sales are forecast at more than $1 billion. The company is due to publish in August trial data for Brilinta, a remedy for heart attacks and strokes that is touted as a next-generation alternative to Sanofi-Aventis’s Plavix. Then there is the potential extension of Crestor, its cholesterol-lowering drug, into preventive uses.

Longer-term challenges remain: notably the tide of patent expiries, such as the 2012 loss of protection on Seroquel, AZ’s schizophrenia treatment, that continue to weigh on the shares. But, at £27.07½, or eight times earnings, a 5 per cent dividend yield is reason enough to hold on.

Avanti

Avanti Communications has lived up to its name. Shares in the AIM-listed satellite broadband specialist have advanced more than 50 per cent since the start of the year and pushed forward again yesterday as it raised £32 million, or nearly half of its stock market value, through a share placing at 225p. The proceeds cover the increased costs of using Ariane to launch Hylas 1, Avanti’s first satellite, scheduled for the first half of next year, rather than a rival whose unproven technology could have caused delays. But the switch should be welcomed: not least for the greater certainty that should encourage more telecoms operators to take space on Hylas. Avanti’s aim is to provide wholesale broadband to rural parts of Europe where the cost of conventional access (installing cable or wireless base stations) is prohibitive: a potential market of 70 million homes. No profits are due until 2012. But at 259¼p, higher risk investors should take a ride.

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