LONDON (Alliance News) - Mar City PLC Thursday said it has been de-listed from the AIM market after it failed to find a Nominated Adviser in time to save the listing, although it is working with its majority shareholders to achieve a relisting "as soon as possible".
The housebuilder's shares were suspended on April 20 when it was left with no Nomad, although it didn't say why that adviser was no longer advising it. It had a month to find a new Nomad under AIM rules or be de-listed and failed to do so.
That followed a company warning in February that its 2014 pretax profit would be substantially below market expectations, following an internal review of its accounting policies, specifically profit recognition associated with the holding value of completed residential properties in a private rental sector portfolio, and the treatment of contractual income from forward sales agreements on two housing sites.
The company said the properties in the private rental sector portfolio were to be retained and therefore recognised and revalued as investment properties. However, it has now decided the benefit of retaining the units is not likely to be as significant as selling the portfolio for cash, and has instead decided to market the units for sale. It is confident the majority of these units will be sold in 2015.
As for the forward sales agreements on the two sites, the company said that following its review it has concluded that given the progress on the sites to date profit recognised should be reduced to be in line with the build and delivery status of both sites. It expects profit from these sites to recognised in 2015 and beyond.
Mar City said at the time that as a result of the adjustments it would conduct a full assessment of its procedures regarding announcements and their verification.
"The company is working with proposed new board members, including inter alia a new chairman and a new nominated adviser in order to significantly strengthen the company's corporate governance and to support Tony Ryan with the day-to-day trading operations," it said in a statement Thursday.
By Steve McGrath; stevemcgrath@alliancenews.com; @stevemcgrath1
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