MACKIE International is to make a detailed statement this morning to the London Stock Exchange on the circumstances surrounding the suspension of its shares. It is understood that the move will entail a substantial, downward revision of its preliminary annual results and some changes at board level.
The Belfast based engineering company was due to make a statement to the Exchange yesterday, but all elements of it were not agreed by the various parties concerned in time. It is believed that the statement will be extremely detailed and may also include a proposed rights issue.
Dealing in Mackie's shares were suspended on April 21st prior to a warning from the company that the published results might have to be restated.
In March, Mackie announced that it had lost £437,000 sterling for 1996. This compared to profits of £3.3 million in 1995, with sales down £17.7 million. The loss arose after an exceptional charge of £1.9 million for restructuring of the textiles operations and pension provisions.
Mr Sul Sahota, the new chief executive who joined the company at the end of March, has been trawling through the figures over the past seven weeks. He will be clarifying the situation today.
When appointed, he emphasised that there were no plans to reduce jobs at the Belfast plant and was quite upbeat about the company's business. However, just three weeks later the company had to make a statement about the accounts.
The shares were suspended at 113 1/2p sterling, a 12 month low and well below the year high of 341 1/2p. The share had lost over 10 per cent in the previous week.
Mackie became a publicly listed company three years ago. A long established precision engineering group, it has an ailing textiles machinery business.
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