'Blindsided' Windflow says annual report will be out today

Windflow Technology says it is confident it will have its annual report available today after being "blindsided" by suspension from trading on the stock exchange.

Chief executive Geoff Henderson said the suspension came through a "miscommunication" with the market operator NZX, which said yesterday the company had failed to file the document on time. NZX said Windflow failed to provide its annual report for the year to June 30 within five days of the due date of October 30.

Last Monday, Windflow said it had sought a waiver from NZX from delivering the annual report, after customer NZ Windfarms began withholding payments from mid-August.

Henderson said he believed he had another day's grace. "It's come out of left field for us. We applied for a waiver and thought that if the NZX did not grant a waiver they'd give us five days' notice. Since we didn't hear back from them we thought we were fine."

The company had delayed its annual meeting from November 16 to December 16 and believed it would not have to issue its report until the middle of this month.

The dispute between the two companies related to turbines provided by Windflow for NZ Windfarms' Te Rere Hau project, near Palmerston North.

In its statement a week ago, Windflow said more than $3.5 million was now owed.

It said it had started a legal process to recover money owing to it by NZ Windfarms, which would shortly result in a High Court hearing, unless the required payment was made.

Windflow had delayed its annual meeting until December 16, and wanted to delay delivering its annual report until November 16 because it expected further developments on the matter before then.

Windflow shares last traded at a year low price of $1.20 on Thursday, having been at $2.95 a year ago.