Boxhill Technologies dismisses winding up petitions as 'without legal merit'

Boxhill Technologies, operator of the Weather Lottery and payment processing software business, has received winding up petitions from Eupay Group, a company that previously supplied it with payment services.

Shares in the AIM-listed company, which is led by former LibDem chairman Baron Timothy Razzall, fell 18% in a matter of minutes to 0.151p after the announcement on Thursday afternoon.

Having taken legal advice from insolvency specialists, Boxhill management indicated they believed the petitions against it and its Prize Provision Services subsidiary were "an effort to avoid repaying balances due to the Group of £225,235".

The company;s advisers also believed the petitions "are wholly without legal merit, procedurally and technically deficient and are liable to be struck-out as an abuse of legal process".

Boxhill's shares had been voluntarily suspended from January until late last month after information from the 2015 accounts was posted on certain bulletin boards.

In the 18-month period to 31 January, Boxhill made a £2.4m gross profit, but a £0.8m exceptional items and £0.2m tax charge, leading to a £0.2m pre-tax profit and a £1,000 total loss for the period.

This left it with £291,000 cash in the bank.