Leading shipping law firm Ince Group has had its stock suspended on the London Stock Exchange due to delays in filing financial reports.
The company’s new auditor, BDO, has asked for more time due to the “complexity of historic and legacy accounting issues”, a statement to the exchange revealed.
“In addition, ongoing delays in China as a result of Covid-19 restrictions continue to impact the audit process,” Ince said.
“The board is not aware of any material issues arising from the audit.”
The audit for the financial year ending 31 March 2022 is still in progress.
In September, Ince was granted a filing extension of 30 December due to the pandemic.
The firm has also missed the same deadline to publish its interim results covering April to September 2022.
On the advice of BDO, Ince expects to publish both reports by 31 January.
The shares were suspended from Tuesday, pending the release of the financial figures.
The news caps a difficult year for the group. In January 2022, the share price was £0.39 ($0.46) but it is now £0.05.
Cyber attack and sacking
A cyber-attack in March cost it almost £5m, and in July, Ince said it was planning to raise around £7m by issuing new shares to avoid “financial difficulties”, causing the stock price to halve.
Chief executive Adrian Biles said he would be stepping down as part of the financing process and the company then took a £7m hit from selling subsidiary Arden Partners, which it had acquired in October 2021.
Biles, who was also managing partner, was later sacked over an alleged conflict of interest.
A settlement was reached with him and another former director, John Biles, its ex-head of finance.
All parties waived claims against each other as a result.
No further details on the alleged conflict of interest have been given.
Donald Brown became chief executive and Jillian Watt was appointed head of finance & administration.
Biles led the takeover of Ince by London law firm Gordon Dadds in 2018, bringing in Hill Dickinson’s head of global shipping, Julian Clark, the following year as senior partner.
Gordon Dadds floated on the London exchange in 2017, raising £20m.
