Uchoose director Paul Murphy tips company into liquidation; QMines queried by ASX

It claimed to have helped thousands of Aussies find a better energy deal but now this Brisbane-based company has collapsed.

GETTING UNPLUGGED

It claimed to have helped thousands of Aussies find a better energy deal online

But Brisbane-based Uchoose has come unstuck, with sole director Paul Murphy tipping the company into liquidation.

It emerged on Tuesday that Revive Financial operative Jarvis Archer has been tasked with cleaning up the mess.

We couldn’t reach Murphy for comment so it’s not clear why it all fell in a heap.

But corporate records show Uchoose Holdings Pty Ltd, which was created 10 years ago but only started trading in 2015, had just over $446,000 in paid shares on issue.

The bulk of these investors, based in South East Queensland, are considered unlikely to recover much, if any, of their money.

Like plenty of its competitors, Uchoose provided a free search service for consumers to compare power plans and made money through commissions paid by the energy retailers.

PLEASE EXPLAIN

Getting a “please explain’’ letter from the ASX asking about a curious share price spike is never a good look.

But that’s precisely what happened to QMines just days after it started trading on the stock exchange on May 6.

Andrew Sparke

The ASX fired off its query last week, on the same day that the company announced highly encouraging initial drill results from its newly-revived Mt Chalmers copper and gold mine just outside Rockhampton.

“Some outstanding results from our maiden diamond drilling program clearly validate the company’s view that Mt Chalmers has significant development potential,’’ an enthusiastic QMines boss Andrew Sparke (illustrated) told investors.

“Mt Chalmers has been dormant for over 25 years, with QMines being the first company to drill a hole since 1995.’’

That announcement sent shares, which had been issued at 30 cents as part of an $11.5 million capital raising, up to 46 cents by the close of trade on the day.

But the stock had also risen steadily above 29 cents in the two previous trading days as well. So, the ASX naturally wondered, had the market been kept fully informed?

In a response released after the market closed on Monday, QMines revealed that it had the test results on May 14 but didn’t disclose the details publicly until five days later.

The company attributed the delay to the need for board approval for its first technical announcement and the necessity of a brief trading halt.

“QMines is assured that the information remained confidential and was not disclosed by those who knew it (other than to ASX) prior to the announcement being released,’’ the firm said.

“The information was known by a small number of individuals within the company who have all confirmed that the information was not and had not been disclosed to any other party/s....QMines personnel took all reasonable steps to ensure the information was released promptly and without delay.’’

The company also noted that its prospectus released in March made clear that drilling had kicked off the previous month.

So what drove the share price up?

QMines points the finger at several factors, including supportive research from market analysts, media coverage, it’s recent listing on the Frankfurt stock exchange and, of course, high prices for gold and copper.