Azlan Xmas share offer turns turkey

The firm failed to sell the majority of shares put up in last month'sabortive rights issue

Azlan's attempted three for 10 rights issue has collapsed after it failed to sell most of the 8.2 million shares offered.

The issue price was offered at 620p from 13 December until 3 January, but shares have trailed behind this ever since the offer was announced on 19 November, falling from 740p to close on 3 January at 567.5p. Only 45,774 new shares were sold by close of the offer, representing 0.56 per cent of the allocation.

Most of the shares in the u48.5 million rights issue, arranged by SBC Warburg, have been picked up by sub-underwriters, so Azlan will still receive the money it needs for its Akam acquisition. But the lack of interest is a disappointment for the networking distributor.

When the rights issue was announced, MD Ed Arnett claimed Azlan's success lay in both adding value for its resellers and providing good results for its shareholders.

But CEO Christian Martin denied the current market price was anything to get upset about. 'The business hasn't changed, and share price movements do not affect it except in the very long term,' he said.

'Analysts at UBS have said our shares are worth 775p because of our rapid growth.'

He blamed the failure of the rights issue on two significant investors bailing out and on the fact that analyst Mark Loveland, who had followed Azlan since its flotation, had not been replaced by Warburg when he quit in November. 'This is more embarrassing for Warburg than it is for us,' Martin said.