Private investors were calling for action after the founder of Monstermob sold half his holding on the same day that the ringtone downloads group revealed plans to delist.

Martin Higginson, who rejoined as a non-executive director recently, sold four million shares to LaNetro Zed. The Spanish company, which took control of Monstermob in February by backing a rescue share issue, paid 50p apiece for the stock in an off-market deal – a 63 per cent premium to their closing price that day.

By negotiating direct with Mr Higginson and other big shareholders, Zed succeeded in picking up a total of 17 million shares to raise its holding to 66 per cent – close to the 75 per cent of votes it would need to take the group private. That angered smaller investors, who had backed Zed’s refinancing four months ago despite the possibility of a 65p all-share bid from its Chinese peer Linktone.

Mr Higginson denied that smaller shareholders were being railroaded and encouraged any sellers to negotiate a price with Zed’s representatives directly rather than using the open market. Most were ignoring that advice, or had failed to notice it in the small print of a shareholder circular sent out on Monday: shares sank 5¼p to 25¼p, a record low.

Plantations developers rose on the back of upbeat research from Ambrian Partners, with REA Holdings ahead 21p at 555½p, MP Evans rising 7¾p to 394p and Anglo-Eastern Plantations up 16½p to 399½p. All three benefited from biofuels demand and the changing food markets in China and India.

There was a revival of the old Carluccio’s bid rumour, with the Italian restaurant chain up 5p to 225p. Emerging UK Investments was the day’s top performer on a 4½p gain to 7¼p after Deffan Financial, a Caribbean investment group, revealed it had taken a 28.5 per cent stake in the cash shell.

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