Solid State loses MoJ electronic offender tagging contract

Solid State's £34m contract to provide electronic offender tags has been terminated by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

The AIM-listed company's Steatite subsidiary, which recognised £3.5m of revenue as part of the mobilisation element of the contract in the first half of the year, will discuss terms with the MoJ regarding how the contract relationship will end.

In October 2015, Solid State revealed there would be delays to the anticipated delivery schedule for the three-year contract, which the company said at the time was disappointing "but contract has not been lost and the directors still expect the contract to be fulfilled in its entirety in due course".

The overall value of the project is understood to be in the region of £300m, so Solid State's element was a relatively modest proportion of the overall project cost.

Shares in the company were down 36% to 340p late in Thursday's session.