Arq Group has paused trading of its shares pending an announcement on its trading outlook and “other developments.”
Not much is known about the announcement other than the above. If it’s any indication of what to expect, the last time Arq halted trading on the ASX was to reveal that its enterprise division was suffering, and that chief executive Martin Mercer was leaving the company.
Since that announcement, web hosting and domain registrars VentraIP and Servers Australia told CRN they’d be interested in the possibility of a merger and subsequent listing on the ASX in order to fund an Arq acquisition.
The theoretical acquisition would result in a $110 million public entity with a major foothold in Australia’s domain hosting and registrar marketing.
CRN stresses that we have no insight into the contents of Arq’s upcoming trading outlook announcement, and the suggestion of a possible acquisition is merely speculative.
Arq’s enterprise business suffered from execution issues” and “unexpected delays” in FY19, leading to an earnings drop from $13.1 million in the first half of 2018 to a $400,000 loss in the first half of 2019.
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