22nd Jan 2014 11:09
LONDON (Alliance News) - Data Centre provider CSF Group PLC said Wednesday that Phil Cartmell would continue as interim chairman to oversee the progress of its strategic review, and that whilst appointing a Chief Executive Officer remained a long term objective, it is not on the near term agenda.
Cartmell has acted as interim chairman since July 2013 to oversee a strategic review of the company. The initial state of the review has now been completed, focused on developing network connectivity in the company's data centres, restructuring and enhancing operational efficiencies.
CSF said it was exploring opportunities with global partners, and remains focused on continuing the restructuring of its business going forward.
In December the company disputed with its auditors over warnings about its future after it swung into a pretax loss in the first-half of its financial year, as it lost two key tenants in its centres and booked write-downs for onerous leases and doubtful debts. CSF reported a pretax loss of RM88.7 million for the six months to end-September, from a profit of RM1.4 million a year earlier.
CSF's auditors warned about its future as a going concern, but the company said it disagreed with that prognosis.
"Whilst we concur that the basis of preparation remains appropriate, in our opinion the company has made inadequate disclosure of the material uncertainty in relation to going concern. This uncertainty arises from the risk of delay to forecast significant contractual receipts which the company is reliant upon in order to continue as a going concern," auditor Deloitte LLP said in its statement attached to CSF's half-year accounts.
"We disagree with the directors who do not deem the uncertainties described above to be material. In our opinion, the interim financial information requires disclosure of this matter as a material uncertainty relating to the ability of the company to continue as a going concern and to realise its assets and discharge its liabilities in the normal course of business," the auditor added.
CSF responded, it said, "The company is expecting significant cash payments during 2014 linked to the development of CX5. These payments are legally binding subject to an independent inspection process, which in the case of Block B is already well progressed. We do not expect any significant delay in these payments but are confident that should a delay occur, any cash shortfall could be mitigated with sensible cash management."
Shares in CSF were trading down 2.4% at 3.05 pence Wednesday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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