Good morning. The big news this morning in the small caps world is the suspension of trading in Silverdell (LON:SID) shares, which is said to be pending an announcement. One of the two announcements this morning says that the suspension is "pending clarification of the Group's financial position".

I don't want to pre-judge it, but a pending clarification statement is usually very bad news. I've put a call into the company, so hopefully might get some additional colour on the nature of the suspension of Silverdell shares. I don't hold myself, although a lot of my friends do. It's a company we've met several times, and seem shareholder friendly, although I felt unease about the potential need for a fund-raising to finance growth, and slightly ambiguous comments from the CEO, so sold my shares a few weeks ago. If something doesn't feel right, then it's always best to play it safe, sell up and ponder why it doesn't feel right.

Let's hope the situation is clarified soon.

 

 

Pursuit Dynamics (LON:PDX) shares are also suspended, although that's certainly less of a surprise, as it's been pretty obvious for several years that that one has run out of chances & nobody believed all the hype any more.

 

 

As mentioned by StrollingMolby in the comments below, Thorntons (LON:THT) has issued a positive Q4 trading statement today. Pre-tax profit will be ahead of market expectations for the year ended 29 Jun 2013, and they helpfully asterisk this by saying that market expectations are for £4.6m profit.

Thorntons shares have risen 8% to 103p on this good news, although as I've been saying for a while now, however I look at the numbers, it looks expensive, given the considerable debt, pension deficit, and leasehold liabilities. I'm not prepared to pay a racy multiple for a business with a very weak balance sheet, and arguably rejuvenating a tired format. Although hats off to management for diversifying away from just retail, a strategy that has worked so far, and has avoided them becoming yet another retail failure.

 

 

 

Press reports are saying that the Government has agreed to allow AIM-Listed shares into ISA, which is expected to be from this autumn,…

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