By Ian Neubauer

Staging Connections Group (STG) chief executive Tony Chamberlain has said rumours that the company is on the verge of being placed into voluntary receivership are untrue.

“The rumours are absolute rubbish,” he told SpiceNews today (Mar 24). “I think what is happening is that some of our competitors may be fuelling the fire.”

“Our share price has deteriorated and that has been the case with many small companies, but we have a very solid plan for fixing the fundamentals of the business that is based on giving our customers an excellent experience.

“We have a very good management team behind us and a rights issue in play to raise capital through existing shareholders. It’s underwritten, so we are guaranteed to get an injection of $6 million in funding,” he said.

STG has been in a state of flux since the economic slowdown kicked in last year, with the company attributing an overambitious growth strategy as one of the key reasons behind crippling debt that at one time neared $100 million.

STG announced a strategic rethink following Chamberlain’s appointment and is currently in the throws of a divestment plan that is taking the company back to its core competency — the renting and supply of AV equipment.

Chamberlain added STG is also focusing on improving customer service. “In the past, we might not have listened to our customers well enough and overspecified what they needed. Now we are changing our practices and listening more carefully” he said.

“When you find a mistake there is no point trying to hide it. What we are doing is learning from our mistakes to make sure we don’t make the same mistakes again.

“There is no doubt we are in a tough market,” he said. But we are holding our own.”

STG shares were trading at 2 cents at midday today compared to 1.8 cents seven days ago.

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