AgCert delays E400m flotation by 24 hours

Conor Keane and David Clerkin

AgCert caught investor attention earlier this year when it head-hunted Waterford Wedgwood chief financial officer Paul D’Alton to become its finance director. Mr D’Alton held similar positions at Bank of Ireland and Aer Lingus before moving to Waterford Wedgwood.

He was once tipped to become chief executive of Bank of Ireland.

AgCert shares had been due to start trading yesterday, but a stock exchange statement that was released before 8am postponed the start of trading “until further notice”. A statement issued after markets closed last night said trading would start this morning instead.

No reason was given for the postponement of the flotation, which is set to provide Mr D’Alton and AgCert chief executive Alan Tank with multi-million euro stakes in the company.

AgCert has a number of high-profile non-executive directors on its board, including Franz Fischler, who was European Commissioner for agriculture between 1995 and 2001, as well as former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Peter Murray and Robert Malpas, formerly chairman of Cookson Group.

The company was founded in 2002, and produces and sells agriculturally-derived greenhouse gas emission reductions, or offsets. It has yet to generate any profits and made a loss of E3.5m last year.

AgCert is 43% owned by US venture capitalist XL TechGroup