Time runs out for Quindell to post full-year results

Quindell has been on the back foot for more than a year since the short-seller Gotham City Research labelled it 'a country club built on quicksand'

The troubled outsourcing firm Quindell suffered fresh embarrassment when it admitted it would not be able to publish its full-year results on time.

The AIM-listed company founded by Rob Terry, which revealed last week it was facing an inquiry by the City watchdog, said the numbers would not be published today in line with stock market rules. These state that audited accounts must be published within six months from the end of a company’s financial year.

“While the work in preparing its audited report and accounts … is in its final stages, due to the complexity of this process, they will now not be published by 30 June 2015,” Quindell’s statement said. “The company … will publish the accounts as soon as possible.”

Quindell has been on the back foot for more than a year since the short-seller Gotham City Research labelled it “a country club built on quicksand”.

Mr Terry left last November after taking part in an opaque share-buying arrangement under which it originally appeared that he and two other directors had increased their holdings, but it later emerged that their stakes had in effect been reduced due to a sale-and-repurchase agreement.

This was the second time he had been forced to quit a company he founded, having previously resigned from the outsourcer Innovation Group in 2003. Mr Terry’s latest venture is tech investment firm Quob Park Estate, a shareholder in broker Daniel Stewart.

Last week, Quindell suspended its shares for the second time this year and said it would “co-operate fully” with the Financial Conduct Authority’s investigation “in relation to public statements made regarding the financial accounts of the company during 2013 and 2014”.

In a separate twist, shares in Australian law firm Slater & Gordon – which agreed to pay £637m for Quindell’s legal division in March – tumbled by more than a quarter in Sydney after it admitted to mis-reporting receipts and payments in the UK business over an 18 month period. It is being investigated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and said it had appointed accountants EY to pore over its books.

“Net operating cashflows, as reported, remain unchanged,” Slater & Gordon said. “The consolidated statements of comprehensive income and consolidated statements of financial position also remain unchanged. The company will provide an update … on the EY assessment during July.”

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An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that Slater & Gordon had mis-reported revenues from its UK business over a three-year period.