Resort Hotels to lose listing

SHARES in Resort Hotels will officially lose their listing today following yesterday's meeting of the Stock Exchange quotations committee, writes Diane Coyle.

The shares were suspended at 45p on 16 July due to the company's failure to present firm restructuring proposals by the Stock Exchange's 31 March deadline. The Serious Fraud Office, with Sussex Constabulary, is currently investigating matters relating to the past management of the hotel group, based in Brighton, after being approached by the company in August.

David Tonkinson, non-executive chairman of Resort, said recently that the group still had the support of its banks, and he believed it could be saved. It runs three-star hotels, mainly in the South and Midlands.

The group made an operating profit of pounds 127,000 in the six months to 28 October, compared with losses of pounds 2m in the same period in 1992. However, interest charges and exceptional costs took pre-tax losses to pounds 5m. According to the latest published balance sheet, Resort had debts of pounds 72m and negative shareholders' funds of pounds 18.4m at the end of April 1993.