Companies: EPO   

Shares in Earthport have been suspended at the company's own request pending the completion of talks with 'potential providers of new equity finance'. The move is somewhat surprising bearing in mind that Earthport, which simultaneously declared that the long-awaited third version of its on-line payment platform has been approved by technical auditor Scientific Generics, tapped investors for £25m just 15 months ago. Although Earthport's technology clearly has a great deal of potential - the platform is being touted as a possible replacement for the banking industry's existing 'legacy' system of transferring funds - developmental delays have already led to warnings of 'a material shortfall in revenues for the year'. In the wake of these sentiments house broker ING Barings is forecasting a £13.5m pre-tax loss for the 12 months to June. With version three of the platform now set for launch and chief executive Jonathan Baile hinting that negotiations with 'a large number of implementation partners' are under way, ING expects 2002 to be significantly better. A £200,000 pre-tax profit is predicted.