Unhappy Metnor ready to quit stock market

Mar 5 2009 by Peter McCusker, The Journal

A NORTH EAST company has opted to leave the stock market saying it is “seriously undervalued” and condemning the City for "perpetual short-termism".

Killingworth-based property and construction group Metnor is quitting the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) ten years after joining it.

This follows Newcastle-based Northern Recruitment Group’s departure from AIM in December – one of around 100 UK companies leaving in the last year.

In the ten years since Metnor joined the market it has grown from a £9m annual turnover company to a large business with revenues of more than £80m. It joined the market to help facilitate its growth but it says it has achieved what it wanted and its publicly-listed status is now more of a hindrance than a help. Finance director Keith Atkinson said: “We do not need cash, we are seriously undervalued and it is not helping us.”

The company expects profits for 2008 to come in at over £2m on a turnover of around £84m, but in the last few months – up until yesterday’s announcement, its shares have fallen by one-third.

“Our performance in what is a challenging environment has been more than reasonable, but the fall in the share price demonstrates to us that the market is taking no account of our performance,” added Mr Atkinson.