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The death knells have been ringing for the past few months but time was finally called on trading in carbon credit company Agcert International (AGC) last week with the company cancelling its listing. Management hopes the move will help it to stay in business with an examiner appointed to prepare rescue proposals. ‘In the absence of these proposals being approved by all parties and successfully implemented, there is no reasonable prospect that the company will be able to continue to operate a viable business,’ the company said in a brief statement.

Shareholders are unlikely to recoup a penny, but with the shares having reached highs of 270p in May 2006 they were trading at just 0.68p the day before the cancellation.

Its business model was to generate the credits through methane capture from animals, mainly in South America but this proved more difficult than it first thought, and it produced far less credits than it anticipated. As most of its projected output was sold forward it was left with a deficit of credits and could not afford to buy credits in the spot market to cover its commitments.

Part of the process to ensure the business continues in some form will be to get out of the obligations it has. Several blue-chip companies such as Dutch utility Nuon and, French utility EDF and BHP Billiton (BHP) had deals with the company. It was spun out of incubator company XL Tech (XLT:AIM) in June 2005 and its shares have also dive bombed from highs of over 200p last year to there current 35p level.

Shares says: This was the inevitable waiting to happen but its still bad news for XL Tech. AVOID