About this week's results announcement: there won't be one. We're terribly sorry, but we haven't got the audited numbers ready. We ran out of time. A lot has happened in the last year – a couple of big transactions and our arrival on the London Stock Exchange – and it's all very complicated. Don't worry, though, we can tell you now that the numbers will be fine on, ahem, 16 April.
That was gist on APR Energy's after-hours announcement on Tuesday and the share price reacted in understandable fashion the next day – falling 20%. Delaying your results announcement because you haven't got the numbers ready is virtually unheard-of. APR will not live this down quickly.
It's a shame because APR had a lot going for it as an alternative to Aggreko, a FTSE 100 company, in the market for supplying temporary power facilities. The growth story still seems to be intact (assuming the numbers are indeed okay when they finally arrive) but there's a sizeable constituency of investors that will take the view that a company is off-limits if it can't hit a basic deadline. It's not an unreasonable view since there are a couple of thousand other companies on the London market that do hit their deadlines. APR's road back to credibility, and an Aggreko-style high rating, is likely to be long.
