Lightning has struck twice for ill-fated AIM-listed junior Kibo Mining PLC (LON:KIBO).
Just three years after its then broker went bust in the middle of a fundraising, it has happened again.
READ: FCA shuts down troubled brokerage Beaufort Securities
Beaufort Securities was placed into insolvency this morning by the FCA after the regulator assessed its financial situation and decided there was a risk to client money.
For Kibo, that meant a double whammy of finding a new broker to keep its AIM listing but also tracking down the proceeds of a £750,000 placing arranged by Beaufort last month but out of which so far it has received nothing.
As a result, the group said, admission to AIM of the 17,647,060 ordinary shares in the placing has been put on hold until further notice.
The company added that it is urgently seeking further clarification on the matter, in particular the timeline for the expected release of the outstanding proceeds and an update on the situation will be provided as soon as more information is available.
Shareholders will know the drill, however, after a placing in 2015 suffered a similar occurrence.
Then, it was Hume Capital that went into administration when it was sitting out £526,000 of share issue proceeds that were earmarked for the company.
Kibo eventually got all of its money but only after a ten-month delay.
Things had been looking up for the junior recently with a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Tanzania Electric Supply Company, known as TANESCO, for a Power Purchase Agreement for electricity from Kibo’s proposed 300MW Mbeya coal-to-power project.
Shares in Kibo today dropped 9% to 5.53p but are still up more than 30% since December.