Syft Technologies delays new CEO appointment

Syft Technologies has cancelled a meeting to appoint a new chief executive who would have injected much-needed capital into the cash-strapped company.

The Christchurch company was to hold a special meeting yesterday afternoon to appoint Andrew Barclay chief executive and get shareholder approval for a new round of capital raising.

But Syft chairwoman Ruth Richardson sent shareholders a letter on Friday saying the meeting could not be held because "certain matters have transpired which alter the resolutions".

Syft builds "sniffer" machines that can detect minute traces of dangerous gas and chemicals, but sniffer sales last year were below expectation. The company has lost several million dollars.

In addition to being the chief executive, it was proposed Barclay would buy a large quantity of new shares in Syft at 0.88 cents a share, giving him a stake of almost 20 per cent.

Syft acting managing director Michael Hawkins said the cancellation of the meeting did not mean the deal with Barclay was off. "Negotiating with Andrew (Barclay) is still in progress," he said.

These negotiations had revealed Syft would need to seek shareholder approval to alter its constitution, he said. "I don't want to go into the details. It's not a controversial matter."

The special meeting would still be held, probably towards the end of January.

Barclay said he was still interested in being involved in Syft. "Nothing has changed past some technical issues," he said. "It's just the timing that's the issue."

Other resolutions which were to be put to shareholders yesterday included converting some directors' fees into shares and raising $1 million from habitual investors. Syft lost $4.9m in the year ended March 30, selling only six sniffer machines after earlier predicting it would sell 20. In the half year ended September 30, the company lost $2.17m and was operating with a cashflow deficit.

Since then Syft has sold four more machines.

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