Rurelec shares retreat as majority owner Sterling calls in administrators

20th Oct 2015 08:08

(ShareCast News) - Investors took flight as AIM-listed Rurelec brought attention to the fact that that majority shareholder Sterling Trust Limited had gone into administration.Sterling Trust owns 303m shares, or 53.99% of Rurelec, which is focused on the Latin American electricity generation market.The trust also has a 29.57% holding in AIM-listed IPSA, an independent power plant developer focused on Southern Africa.The trust was placed in administration on Monday, with Christopher Barrett and John Carpenter of Dow Schofield Watts Business Recovery appointed administrators.Interim results from Rurelec at the end of September showed losses had swollen almost tenfold to £14.1m on £0.6m of revenue, as it was forced to write off and write down the value of assets in Peru and Argentinian and associated company IPC.During the first half of this year, founder and chief executive Peter Earl stepped down along with two other executive directors, with experienced Argentina hand Mark Keegan appointed chief executive and accountant Simon Morris, a former senior director at Grant Thornton, also joining the board as an executive director.Chairman Colin Emson, who is also chairman and director of Sterling Trust, resigned last Tuesday "to allow the new executive board to take whatever measures are appropriate for the future stability of the company", leaving the company, according to its website, without a chairperson.Rurelec shares were down 41.3% to 0.66p apiece on Tuesday.