"Who's a naughty boy, then? Who's forced us to make another announcement?"
Ince Gordon Dadds has been unable to meet its latest deadline for releasing its long-delayed financial results.
The listed company’s shares have been suspended from trading since it announced in December that it was unable to publish its results for 2022.
Ince initially said that "the complexity of historic and legacy accounting issues" meant its new auditor, BDO, required "more time to conclude their outstanding audit work", but that it expected the issue to be resolved by 31 January.
When that deadline passed, the firm announced a “short delay” caused by “a number of outstanding technical items", and told the market to expect the results by 10 February.
The 10th passed by without results and Ince promised that BDO were “in the final stages of quality control" and required "approximately two more weeks".
Approximately two weeks later, the firm told weary shareholders and smirking onlookers that BDO had raised “further queries in the final stages of quality control”. They “have been addressed”, said Ince, so everyone should start getting excited for “early March”.
As mid-March kicked in on Monday, Ince, now down one Senior Partner, confessed that “unfortunately, the Group's auditor, BDO LLP, has not yet completed its work”.
The latest dog to eat its homework was “matters outstanding with the audit in Hong Kong, which has taken longer than anticipated”.
Shamed by four missed deadlines, the firm has given up predicting when its results will be available. It said that a further announcement would be made "as soon as possible once the audit is complete”.
The firm declined to comment on the debacle. Shareholders, however, have been happy to share their thoughts. Adapting the firm’s slogan, one commented, “You, Ince, and a bucket of sh*te - in any case".
“This delay is pretty incredible, considering this follows them not publishing ANY results for all of 2022”, posted a chastened investor.
“The worst part is the endless broken promises of publication dates, quite embarrassing when you read back through the RNSs and see how many times the goal posts have been moved. Big breach of all plc norms, something very broken here.”
“I'm sorry you're locked in here”, one smug ex-shareholder told a trapped Ince investor. “Pleased I sold out ahead of the suspension. At this rate, by the time they come back to market, the whole industry will have shifted to AI anyway”.
Comments
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Where is the SRA? Surely this is undermining the trust in the profession?
You’d have to be an idiot to invest in a listed law firm. The business model just isn’t sustainable.
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Grubby when acquiring Ince, grubby ever since.
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Ince management in hiding. Do not approach. They may be busy partying instead of running the firm. Please call Ince reception if they you have information. Do not approach! They could be dangerously armed with leftover cheap Christmas hamper wine.
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Massive casualty on the way for Ince, the senior management have already (conveniently) bailed out, so the victims will unfortunately be staff and lawyers.
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"Pleased I sold out ahead of the suspension. At this rate, by the time they come back to market, the whole industry will have shifted to AI anyway”.
Sounds like this idiot is going from one ill-advised commercially brain-dead investment straight to another.
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as 'bad numbers take longer to add up than good numbers' these numbers must be very bad indeed!
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Great entertainment but tragic for the innocents caught up in this.
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Ince really should stop blaming BDO - it is so cringeworthy. It isn't BDO's fault that Ince clearly has horrific financials.
How has the whole of Ince's board failed to take PR advice?
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Maybe their printers ran out of red ink?
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LOL
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Jump while you can - "it's going dahn in the forf - and I do mean it this time."
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*Correction* - you'd have to be mad to invest in a listed law firm that isn't Gateley or Keystone.
Gateley:
https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/GTLY/gateley-holdings-plc/company-page
Keystone Law:
https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/KEYS/keystone-law-group-plc/company-page
and for contrast...those bumping along the bottom:
Knights (which is actually cockney rhyming slang):
https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/KGH/knights-group-holdings-plc/company-page
Ince (ice, ice baby - still frozen):
https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/INCE/ince-group-plc-the/company-page
DWF (reputedly stands for "Dude, what the f*ck?" which is what you say when you check what the shares price is and remember you invested in the equity by buying shares):
https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/DWF/dwf-group-plc/company-page
Rosenblatt:
https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/RBGP/rbg-holdings-plc/company-page
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@lawyer.I.am.ROF - have you seen who their PR co is? End of.
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DWF’s price will improve because it’s got good lawyers and good clients. It is a “proper” law firm with a good reputation.
Knights price won’t improve because it is badly managed, has an awful reputation and has neither the lawyers nor the clients to enable it to recover.
Rosenblatt will recover from what will be seen as a blip. It’s niche, well managed and its fundamentals are good.
If I was going to have a punt, I’d go for DWF.
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As a recruiter, the one I will be avoiding buying shares in is the one which is almost universally met with “oh no, not there” when it’s mentioned to candidates.
The number of consistently awful stories doing the rounds has killed it as a viable option. That means it cannot grow by lateral hires which also means its share price is unlikely to ever materially improve.
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Gateley isn't exactly a success. The share price has gone sideways since 2017. The only question is why it hasn't flopped like the others have given the obvious problems with the listed model, for everyone except the partners cashing out.
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@Anonymous 21 March 07:30
Which firm is that?