Inland Homes faces share-trading suspension

Trading of Inland Homes shares will be suspended as the firm is set to miss the stock market deadline for publishing its financial results.

The homebuilder had already announced a delay to the publication of its results earlier this month, after identifying possible breaches regarding “certain related party issues […] of which the board was not informed at the relevant times”.

At the same time, it announced that group chair Simon Bennett and two non-executive directors, Carol Duncumb and Brian Johnson, had resigned.

No further details of the breaches have been revealed, but companies listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) – the London Stock Exchange’s market for SMEs – must immediately disclose the terms of a transaction with “related parties” such as shareholders, directors or their family members.

In an announcement to the stock market this morning, the Buckinghamshire-headquartered firm said that its auditors PwC and the board needed “further time to review these matters” and produce an independent report about them.

This means the company will “not be in a position” to publish its results before its 31 March deadline, so trading in its shares will be suspended from the opening of the Stock Exchange on 3 April.

The firm, which specialises in residential schemes on brownfield land, intends to request a restoration of trading in its shares when it does manage to publish its results for its 2022 financial year, the statement added.

In its latest full-year results to September 2021, Inland reported a large rise in pre-tax profit to £13.2m from an increased turnover of £181.7m.

In January, it said it expected losses in its next accounts to be around £91m – more than the £37m loss it had predicted earlier.

This morning, it also announced that the board was considering a fund raise of up to £5m, to be implemented at 10p per share. It said it had received indicative support for around half of the amount and will continue to discuss the issue with shareholders.

Matthew Robinson, formerly non-executive director of mining services company Goldplat, was named as Inland’s new chair on 14 March. Former Barratt Homes Southern Counties managing director Trevor Sawyer was named as a new non-executive director three days later.

Shares in the company were down by 1.25p, or 17.24 per cent, to 6p as of 11am. In early January their price had hit 24.5p.