UK 01:17 Friday, 9 October 2026
Breaking news and expert analysis on fast-moving AIM and LSE listed shares
I covered a few cursory matters yesterday (HERE) regarding the stepping down of Andrew Austin as CEO of IGas Energy plc (IGAS) and the diabolical trading statement issued yesterday. We are told that Mr Austin will hang around to ensure a smooth transition – rather reminiscent of the situation at Coms when Dave Brieth stepped down but would hang around for the same reason. Except that in Mr Brieth’s case he was then selling shares in what appeared to be a close period, a bit of a problem but for the fact that he was no longer running the show and, indeed, we gather that he has not been on site since walking the plank. So what of Mr Austin’s holding in IGas – and his disgraceful EFH deal?
Finally, some sixteen months or so after the disgrace of Andrew ‘Piggy’ Austin’s sale of 7,500,000 shares to Equities First Holdings LLC in return for a non-recourse loan when he had been announced by RNS to be buying shares, he has been sent to the Corporate Butchers’ shop. After a period when the IGas (IGAS) share price has fallen from a peak of around 160p to the current 30p or thereabouts (having hit lows of below 20p), and the train-wreck of the deal to buy Dart Energy (at least for Dart’s shareholders) someone had to pay the price.
Following my (unanswered) open letter to Jefferies International (Nomad to IGas) in the wake of having inspected the share register and finding a 10.25 million shareholding registered on 25 Nov 2014 (HERE ), I have now asked AIM Regulation to look into the matter.
Last week's meltdown in the share price at Afren (AFR) shows how devastatingly fast is the transfer of ownership from shareholders to debt holders when a company's loan covenants are breached.
Having already published an open letter to IGas’ (IGAS) Nomad, Jefferies International, asking it to look into a holding of 10.25m shares registered to Bank of New York Nominees on 25 November 2014 (HERE) which exceeds 3% of the issued shares I have been doing some number crunching. The results throw up either the most incredible coincidence, or a demonstration that IGas CEO Andrew Austin has handed over 2.75m more shares to EFH than the 7.5m shares disclosed the very next day after this 10.25m share holding was registered. Here is why.
In the light of the controversy over Andrew "Piggy" Austin’s deal with Equities First Holdings LLC and the questions over margin calls, your intrepid reporter met up with Tom Winnifrith on Tuesday to have a look at the shareholder register in Bristol. If Tom thinks this demonstrates what an exciting life he must lead, mine must be even more so as I had to travel further, to Tom’s home town! What did we find?
In the light of our studies of the rulebook here on ShareProphets and the disgrace that is IGas’ (IGAS) CEO’s lack of transparency over his dealings with Equities First Holdings LLC, I have today written to ask AIM Regulation for clarification on a number of points. I have a nasty feeling that things are simply going to get worse and worse for Andrew “piggy” Austin.
A year and five days ago Andrew “Piggy” Austin announced he was buying shares in Igas (IGAS) at 135p sending the stock up to 147p. Sadly that was untrue he made a net £7 million from selling/loaning shares to dodgy Equities First Holdings LLC at 93p. Such dodgy deals always have a level at which there is a margin call. FFS the shares are now just 30.5p
Andrew Monk, the CEO of broker VSA Resources has this morning suggested that Igas (IGAS) is both a potential bid target but also already in default on its bonds, methinks he overeggs a bit on both counts.
Yesterday I ran a piece saying that IGas (IGAS) was still not complying with DTR 3 of the Disclosure and Transparency Rules in the FCA rule book. It isn’t, but it turns out that DTR 3 does not apply to AIM companies, not that I managed to glean that from the DTR rules, although it can be inferred from the AIM Rules in the Guidance Notes. Mea Culpa, then and I apologise for the error. But AIM Rule 17 contains much the same requirements and so here is a corrected version of that piece. For the record, DTR 5 (rules governing disclosure of holdings greater that 3%) DOES apply to AIM Companies.
Today is the one year anniversary of the first dodgyEquities First Holdings LLC share deal on AIM. It was a year ago that Andrew Piggy Austin of IGAS said he was buying shares when in fact he made £7 million with his EFH loan/sale agreement. Today we will be celebrating that day all day lest Piggy forget.
