Keybridge results outline loan to Bolton

Investment tiddler Keybridge Capital, one of the micro-caps among Nicholas Bolton’s interconnected businesses, has finally issued its full-year results.

Nicholas Bolton.

Investment tiddler Keybridge Capital, one of the micro-caps that is part of Nicholas Bolton’s complex web of interconnected businesses, has finally issued its full-year results showing an impairment against a $440,000 indemnity loan advanced to the entrepreneur which might not be paid back.

Shares in Keybridge remain suspended by the Australian Securities Exchange pending the outcome of an ASX inquiry into a number of issues raised by the full-year accounts that were released on Thursday, as well as other matters relating to the Keybridge investment group.

Mr Bolton, the enigmatic corporate raider who in 2009 at the age of 26 mounted an audacious $4 million raid on then-Macquarie Group-backed toll road failure BrisConnections, resumed his role as chief executive of Keybridge earlier this year after the corporate regulator’s ban on him acting as a company director came to an end. Keybridge has a market capitalisation of about $12m and has engaged in a number of takeovers including a recent grab for publicly listed chocolate-maker Yowie, which it walked away from in May.

It has a number of other investments including a stake in a fund called HHY and a shareholding in resources play Molopo Energy, which has been suspended from trade since July 2017.

The latest accounts from Keybridge are as complex as Mr Bolton’s web of investment activities. They show revenue of $1.317m, down from $3.831m in 2018, with its loss of $3.61m down from a loss of $6.8m the previous year.

The accounts reveal that Keybridge has booked a $440,000 provision on an indemnity loan advanced to Mr Bolton. The company said in the notes in its accounts that the impairment did not prejudice its rights, including recovery, under the terms of the advance made to Mr Bolton. If he paid back the advance the provision would be reversed, Keybridge said.

Mr Bolton is one of Keybridge’s biggest shareholders.

The accounts show the loss of $3.61m for fiscal 2019 was driven by a $785,000 loss attributed to its stake in HHY Fund, primarily due to the adverse share price performance of HHY’s investments in Yowie, Metgasco and Copper Strike. There was also a $606,000 provision for impairment in respect to Keybridge’s stake in Molopo and a $766,000 unrealised loss on investments in listed securities.

Shares in Keybridge last traded at 7.1c.