Kidicorp trade suspended

Shareholders of Kidicorp Group could not trade yesterday after the company was suspended from the stock exchange for a late annual report.

Under listing rules, the annual report for the year to March 31 was due to be issued to NZX by June 30. Kidicorp was given a final warning on Monday.

Kidicorp managing director Wayne Wright said the annual report had been filed electronically within NZX's timeframe and was also available on the company's website.

Kidicorp had assumed this would be satisfactory. "But NZX said, no, it had to be mailed out to the shareholders and that won't happen till Monday," Wright said.

NZX said Kidicorp shares would remain suspended until it received confirmation that the annual report had been issued to the firm's 949 shareholders.

Wright said the delay stemmed from "a lot of difficulty" in getting company records needed by KidiCorp's auditors, Ernst & Young, from Australia.

On March 31 KidiCorp "disengaged" Australian firm Peppercorn Management, which had been providing operational management, after Peppercorn was taken over by a rival, ABC Learning Centres.

The annual report shows a full-year audited loss of $746,920, the same as the previously released non-audited result.