Azlan outlines timetable to lift share suspension

Azlan aims to issue restated accounts and lift the suspension from its shares within six to eight weeks, according to CEO Chris Martin.

Azlan was forced to suspend its shares two weeks ago after the distributor admitted that ?certain unresolved accounting issues? would adversely affect its results for the year ended 5 April (PC Dealer, 18 June).

Martin admitted that the resignation of company secretary Adrian Lamb from the board last week was as a result of his failure to have the accounts ready in time.

Martin admitted that profits would be less than the #14.8 million forecast in April.

He insisted the only problem with the accounts was one of housekeeping and that discipline about the keeping of accounts had not been maintained. He denied that any more heads would roll.

Ed Arnett, Azlan MD for Northern Europe, said the distributor was ?not looking for sacrificial lambs?. He blamed the procedures of using a different operating system which showed up during the audit, but stressed that the system itself was not the problem. He also denied that the problem had anything to do with acquisitions.

Both Martin and Arnett continued to claim that the underlying reason for these problems was the substantial growth that the company had experienced over the year and the resulting problems from the increasing complexity of the accounts.