Second firm suspended for missing results deadline

EDINBURGH construction firm Smart & Co yesterday became the second Scottish company in less than 24 hours to have trading in its shares suspended after it failed to realise its results were due.

The Financial Services Authority suspended its shares yesterday morning, after Smart failed to post its results for the six months to 31 January by the end of March. A statement from company secretary Andrew McClure shortly afterwards said the company was "unaware of the latest time scale deadline of two months from the end of the relevant period".

Under the European Commission's transparency directive, a company has two months from the end of the first half of its accounting year to post interim results. Previously, firms listed on the London Stock Exchange had three months to file, but have been required to adhere to the new rules from the start of any financial year beginning after 20 January, 2007. The rules are spelled out on the websites of the FSA and HM Treasury.

On Monday, mining investment company Palmaris Capital had its shares suspended because it was not able to sign off its interim results for the six months to 31 December by the end of March. Palmaris is listed on Aim, which still allows three months for the filing of interim results.