Stock exchange suspends trade in Savoy Equities

By ELLEN READ

Trade in Savoy Equities was suspended yesterday as the stock exchange punished the company for failing to report its annual result on time.

Exchange rules state that a company's results must be announced no more than 75 days after the balance date - December 31 for Savoy Equities, meaning an announcement was due by Friday, March 16.

The company had warned the exchange it could not meet this deadline but said it would report by last Friday. When this failed to happen, the exchange suspended trade and will continue to do so until the report is released.

"We had some issues we wanted to resolve before we released it [the annual result] and we thought it was best to make sure that was right before we released it," Savoy chief executive Kerry Haycock said, explaining the issues involved asset realisations. "It will be out as soon as possible, within the next couple of days."

Mr Haycock was unable to discuss the result except to say that it would be a loss, as the company indicated before Christmas. He viewed the trade suspension as a technicality and said the company had been in contact with the exchange.