The recent troubles of Clarity Commerce Solutions – the retail software specialist referred to in this column last year as Obfuscation Commerce Solutions – are evident from its willingness to pay interest at 30 per cent on a loan of just £600,000.

It confirmed last week that it had taken the loan for “much needed additional working capital”.

The loan was made by Southwind, a trust connected to the family of Bob Morton, who holds a 10 per cent stake in Clarity.

However, the sorry tale of Clarity looks like it is heading for a happy ending later this month after Tuesday’s announcement of a placing and open offer to raise up to £1.8m.

The 2-for-7 offer at 25p is partially underwritten to a maximum of £1.5m by Southwind. Part of the proceeds will be used to repay the £600,000 bridging loan.

Mr Morton, a serial backer of Aim companies, will be taking up his rights. If all is approved at the extraordinary meeting on February 28, the new shares will begin trading the following day.

The saga could be used as a textbook example of why many investors steer clear of small-cap companies. Shareholders may have had better things to do at 12.55pm on New Year’s Eve, when the interim results came out. They may also have missed the announcement at 11.25am on Christmas Eve that Graham York, the founder and former chief executive who still holds a 14.5 per cent stake, had been removed as a director with effect from December 23.

The turmoil within the company is illustrated by the fact that only a month earlier it had announced Mr York was stepping down from the top job because of ill health, but would remain as a non-executive director “to allow the board to continue to benefit from his extensive knowledge and experience of the business”.

The interim statement also makes surreal reading. The company announced excellent progress in the planned recovery after an expected loss of £1.4m on revenues of £9.7m. Then it admitted that the loss had put such pressure on working capital that the £345,000 proceeds from the sale of a freehold property in Gravesend was “helpful” – but further cash-raising initiatives were urgently required.

The board also noted without irony that “in the past, communication with investors has been poor and intermittent” and promised to do better.

Mr Morton was one of the rebel shareholders who failed to oust the board nine months ago. Through the various twists and turns since, it appears as if the rebels have at last achieved their aim.

Ken Smith, managing director since September, is confident that the turning point has been passed and that the company will recover sufficiently to break even in the second half.

As always, the proof will come in the share price, which has fallen from more than 70p to 26½p in the past nine months. It has been a hell of a journey – and one such a small company could ill afford to make.

Reach for your tin hats

Exactly four weeks ago this column mentioned the spot of bother run into by two winners from October’s Aim awards – Silence Therapeutics, which won best performing share of the year, and Mecom, the media group that won best transaction of the year.

It also drew attention to the proverb that bad things come in threes, warning that the remaining nine winners had better reach for their tin hats.

This week Leadcom Integrated Solutions, the Israel-based telecommunications service provider, became the third.

The company’s website proudly sports a little golden rosette to show it holds the title of Aim International Company of the Year. But it has warned that later this month it will be reporting a loss of up to $6m for 2007, compared with a pre-tax profit of $12.5m in 2006.

The loss, caused by discontinued business in Latin America, sent the shares down to 33p, only 1p above the flotation price of nearly three years ago.

Such a glut of bad news from companies supposed to be at the top of their game prompts speculation on whether institutional investors might be becoming disillusioned with Aim companies. Even some of those that appear to be doing well have suffered, a good example being Myhome International.

The franchised domestic cleaning specialist is considering paying a maiden dividend after doubling pre-tax profits to £1.5m in the year to September on turnover up from £2.7m to £5.1m. The company also ended the year with net cash of £2.9m after two placings at 85p and 72p, respectively.

It did say that, after a slower-than-expected start to the new financial year, the financial performance of the company was expected to be lower than initially expected for 2008. Equity Development, which produces sponsored research on the company, cut its forecast for profits this year by more than £2m to £3.6m.

That still represents another year of doubling profits. But the shares fell 6p to 30½p on Monday and have continued down to 25p – less than half the 57p when the company moved from Plus to Aim at the end of 2006.

It seems an over-reaction but this is a weird market, and not all the news is bad.

Evolution Securities was understandably cock-a-hoop this week over its success in raising £67m on Aim for Kentz, the engineering contractor that caters for the smaller end of the oil and gas sector. By any standards, it was a big flotation and it attracted some institutions that had not previously invested in an Aim company.

david.blackwell@ft.com