Duncan Soukup, the recently appointed chairman of AIM listed Renewable Power & Light Plc (LON:RPL), this morning told investors that there was even less money in the company’s accounts than previously thought. Mr Soukup, together with his new board and management team, are currently trying to establish who was responsible for the roughly $90m of losses suffered by the company during its three and a half years on the market. Today, the bad news was that instead of sitting on a cash position of $5m, as reported in February this year, the company’s was only in receipt of $3.79m.

Mr Soukup said: “Unfortunately for shareholders it would appear that, as is often the case when things go wrong, they have been left nursing their losses whilst those who were supposedly in charge have been paid handsomely and walked away unscathed. I am confident that our investigations will throw light on who was responsible for this abominable mess and that we will then do everything we can to seek redress with a view to generating a recovery for shareholders. In the meantime the board is preparing a circular to shareholders with proposals for a reorganisation and a new strategy for the company. I would like to extend my thanks to shareholders for their patience.”

RPL came to AIM in December 2006 at the same time as buying two power plants in the US for £13.2m in the hope of turning them into profitable biodiesel-powered energy producers. However, the company soon ran into trouble with one of its main contractors and was distracted by litigation with a former CEO and former head of business development. In 2008 it decided to cut its losses and start selling off its assets, which ended up with the sale of the two plants last year for $8.5m plus other deals to sell equipment.

Shares in RPL slipped by 8% to 1.38p. Mr Soukup, whose Thalassa Energy (LON:THAL) is a major shareholder in RPL, took control of the board in May this year after teaming up with another shareholder, CityPoint, to block the previous directors carrying out their investing policy. Since then, an in-depth review of the legacy issues that resulted in the collapse of the company's business has been ongoing. In today’s statement, the new management conceded that the company's financial position and…

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