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COMMANDER Communications' woes deepened after the telecommunications company was suspended from trading for failing to lodge its statutory accounts by the official deadline.

The former Telstra subsidiary blamed the delay on a "meltdown" of its automated payment system in the last quarter of the financial year, which had "complicated" the finalising of its accounts.

Commander expects to lodge its statutory accounts within "a number of days".

The latest bungle comes less than a month after two of Commander's biggest shareholders, AMP and Perpetual, hastily sold down their stakes.

Yesterday, Melbourne hedge fund Monterrey Investment Management joined the sell-down when it ceased to be a substantial shareholder about three months after building a stake of almost 7 per cent.

Since late April, more than $325 million has been wiped from the stock's market value after three earnings downgrades in quick succession, leaving its worth yesterday at just $136 million.

The small-business telecommunications provider revealed in August that it had sought an extra $20 million from its bankers because it was strapped for cash. At the time, management did not comment on whether the re-financing was related to a breach of previous debt covenants.

Chief executive Adrian Coote declined to return calls yesterday, but a spokesman said the delays to the lodgement of the accounts was not related to the refinancing.

Analysts have warned that Commander's first-half earnings tend to be flat because of the seasonal nature of the business, which means investors could have to wait until next August before they know whether a turnaround is possible.

But industry observers believe the most likely outcome for Commander could be a break-up of its assets.

Senior Perpetual figures admitted last week that "we got it wrong" in Perpetual's investment in Commander.

Commander turned a $26 million net profit in 2005-06 into a $5 million full-year loss last financial year, blaming a poor performance by its voice and network division and problems with its automated payment system in the last quarter.

The integration of Commander's most recent acquisition, the information technology services company Volante, bought in April last year, has been a key problem.

Commander was one of 21 companies to be suspended from trading yesterday for failing to lodge their accounts with the stock exchange.