Cooks, Enprise face trading suspension for late reports

By Jenny Ruth

Aug. 1 (BusinessDesk) - Stock exchange operator NZX has warned Enprise and Cooks Global Foods that it will suspend trading in their shares unless their annual reports are filed by close of trading on Wednesday, Aug. 7.

Both companies used to be listed on the now defunct alternative exchange for smaller companies with Enprise migrating to the main board from April 1 and Cooks from June 24.

NZX granted both companies a class waiver, allowing them to take advantage of the longer filing period AX provided. Instead of having to file their annual reports within three months of the end of their financial years, they had an extra month until July 31.

Cooks, which owns the franchising rights to Esquires Coffee Houses outside of Australasia, said yesterday it would be late in filing its annual report because it is transitioning to a new chief financial officer.

Preparing the report was disrupted by the departure announced on May 30 of Scott Pearson, who had been acting CFO since November last year, the company said.

The appointee, Richard Chew, will join the company on Aug. 7 but chair Keith Jackson said in a statement the report should be released within a week.

Jackson said no adjustments to the preliminary final results announced on June 14 have been identified – it reported a net loss of $4.7 million for the year ended March.

“Cooks believes that any adjustments required will be non-cash in nature and will therefore have little material impact on the group’s funding position,” Jackson said.

The preliminary cash-flow statement shows a net cash of $302,000 at March 31.

Enprise, which resells IT systems such as MYOB, reported a $429,000 net loss for the year ended March. On July 2, the company said it was in technical breach of its banking covenant relating to interest cover because of non-cash write downs of its equity-accounted investments.

Enprise said its bank had provided a waiver of the breach but is now within its rights to call the loan which it said remained below its available cash balances.

Its preliminary cash-flow statement showed cash of $771,000 at March 31.

(BusinessDesk)

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