Inland Homes to suspend shares and delays results again

Troubled housebuilder Inland Homes is suspending its shares and delaying its results for a second time to investigate “related party issues”.

In a trading update this morning, the AIM-listed firm said its board was in the final stages of commissioning a report to investigate the issues and “other relevant matters”.

As a result, the company said it was “not in a position to publish its audited results before 31 March”.

AIM rules stipulate Inland’s audited results must be published by the end of March, which means its shares will be suspended from Monday 3 April.

This is the second time its annual accounts have been delayed after saying last month accountant PwC needed more time to complete its audit.

Inland Homes also announced it is considering raising up to £5m through new shares at a nominal value of 10p per share.

Newly appointed chair Matthew Robinson, a chartered accountant, is leading the work to find options for completing the audit and possible changes to internal management procedures, Inland said.

The suspension of the shares also comes after the resignation of three other board members, Simon Bennett, Carol Duncumb and Brian Johnson at the start of the month after the “related party issues”, which have not been disclosed, were revealed to auditors.

In January the firm revealed a deteriorating housing market and ballooning construction costs had led it to revise the amount of pre-tax loss it expected to post in 2022’s accounts to more than £90m from £37m.

Last September, it said it would make a loss of around £37m for the year, which led to the resignation of the company’s founder and chief executive, Stephen Wicks. His replacement, former Galliard boss Don O’Sullivan resigned after just over a month in the job. The housebuilder has previously said Wicks may return to the firm but this is as yet unconfirmed.