internet company Infoserve reported a 135 per cent jump in turnover yesterday.

Despite a widening in its full-year pre-tax loss, the Darlington-based plc said it expects to make substantial progress over the coming 12 months, after clinching two significant contracts.

The company, which employs more than 125 staff at Darlington's Morton Palms offices, also revelaed that shareholders had approved plans to raise £1.5m through a share placing to provide some working capital and maximise its opportunities with Yahoo!

The online local search marketing specialist, which floated on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in June last year, posted a pre-tax loss of £3.11m for the year to March 31, compared to £2.18m a year earlier.

Turnover in the period surged from £1.71m to £4.02m, helping the firm's share price to climb by more than six per cent yesterday to close at 50p.

Infoserve - a hybrid of a local search engine and business directory - has secured two major contracts recently, the first with internet search station Yahoo! and the second with Football League Interactive (FLi).

In March, the plc signed an exclusive contract with Yahoo! to become the official Yahoo! Local advertising sales partner.

The deal is expected to push Infoserve's turnover up to £23.16m by 2009, and bring hundreds of jobs to the region.

Infoserve also signed a three-year contract with FLi to provide a local business finder on the participating clubs' websites, which includes five Premiership teams.

Yesterday, chief executive Steve Barnes said the company had made substantial progress since listing on AIM and was in a strong position to achieve its goal of becoming the leading provider of local search services and data in the UK.

"Our growth has exceeded the industry average, demonstrating that we are capturing further market share of the local search market," he said.

"All our product groups have performed well and the new contracts with the Football League and Yahoo! Local present us with significant opportunities for further rapid growth.

"As a result, we are looking to raise £1.5m by way of a placing in order to maximise the Yahoo! Local opportunity and provide some working capital."