The Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC) has suspended the state license of home builder Simonds Group (ASX:SIO). 

Simonds announced the news to its shareholders this morning and that it had suspended all operations in Queensland pending reinstatement of the license.

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The company assured shareholders it would not substantially hurt the business because Queensland is less than 10 per cent of its turnover and no other regions were affected.

At the same time, Simonds made no secret it wanted the license back. “The group is responding to the notification and is working with the QBCC to address this issue,” the company said.

Simonds blamed the suspension on a “technical licensing breach” but went no further in this morning’s announcement.

The company’s shares gained nearly 30 per cent in the last three months but fell by half a cent to 35 cents at the start of trading this morning.

In other ASX corporate news today…

Regal Funds Management has been selling down its stake in GetSwift (ASX: GSW). The move came after the company’s significant share price decline and legal problems.

A substantial holder notice filed yesterday afternoon reveals Regal has sold over 2 million shares in the last year, although it still holds 7.96 per cent of the company. The sales returned $1.4m to Regal.

But considering prices were no lower than $1.26 throughout the period Regal last bought in (during 2017), while being no lower than 70c since March 2018, it appears the institutional investor has made a substantial loss.

Queensland-based bauxite miner Metro Mining (ASX: MMI) denied it had been hurt by a temporary closure of one of its offtake partner’s alumina refineries in China. One plant operated by Xinfa Group has been temporarily closed by Chinese authorities after environmental audits.

However, Metro reminded shareholders Xinfa had a total of six plants and its remaining five were currently operating without restrictions and the offtake agreement was proceeding as normal.

After three years of suspension, Pacific Dairies (ASX: PDF) has been removed from the ASX. Pacific Dairies’ directors were scrambling to secure funding for the business as the deadline approached but failed to meet it. The board told shareholders it was “committed to relisting the company as soon as possible once funding is secured”.

Jewellery play Plukka (ASX: PKA) has walked away from a deal that would have likely seen it relisted.

The company voluntarily suspended itself in late September upon announcing a deal to acquire a pair of companies collectively known as the Food Box.

This was because it had to let the shareholders vote to approve the acquisition, as well as change the company’s name and sign off on an associated capital raising.

But yesterday afternoon, Plukka announced the agreement was terminated for reasons including recent management changes at the Food Box and slower revenue growth. The company said it was in shareholders’ best interests to look elsewhere for opportunities.

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