Energy tiddler’s broker spat grips City after funds hoo-hah in Utah
FALLOUTS between AIM-listed firms and their brokers are a fairly regular occurrence. Nevertheless, TomCo Energy’s spat with SVS Capital turned heads in the City today.
This session SVS Capital quit as TomCo’s broker stating its reputation was “likely to be prejudiced” by continuing as the company’s broker after it pulled the plug on the firm’s fundraising efforts.
The trouble started when TomCo said last week it had raised £532,350 from investors via SVS in order to undertake field tests at its project in Utah.
Days later it said the testing had been delayed until next year “due to colderthan-expected temperatures”.
This raised eyebrows among investors who wanted to know why the company had bothered raising funds if it knew there was a chance the work could be pushed back.
But this session TomCo stuck by the placing decision saying: “The company confirms that all material information was in the public domain at the time the placing agreement was entered into. Accordingly, the company is taking legal advice as to whether SVS’s termi- nation of the placing agreement valid.”
TomCo shares were suspended as the company looks for a new broker and considers its financing options.
On the main market the FTSE 100 was climbing up 17.71 points to 7055.72 despite another ugly session for the banks. There are mounting fears that
is Theresa May’s draft deal with the European Union will give London’s vast financial centre only a basic level of access to the bloc’s markets after Brexit.
Royal Bank of Scotland lost 4.8p to 219.4p, Lloyds Banking fell 0.86p to 54.5p and Barclays shed 1.1p to 165.4p.
But Standard Chartered climbed 8.9p to 605.5p and HSBC climbed 3.1p to 660.9p as the two do most of their business in Asia.
Elsewhere, Royal Mail tumbled below its float price, dropping 6p to 319.4p, after yesterday pre-tax profit more than halved to £33 million for the six months to 23 September. Royal Mail floated in October 2013 at 330p per share.
On the FTSE 250, outsourcing firm Capita climbed 6p to 113.9p, recovering from a 9% fall yesterday after being told off by the NHS for failing to send out cervical screening letters to about 45,000 women because of a computer error.
It was also proving a strong session for builder Kier Group, which said it would meet its expectations for the full year, suggesting it was able to shrug off a hit to the construction sector from the imminent exit from the EU. The shares shot up 36.5p to 861.5p.