Kenya’s infrastructure investments firm TransCentury Ltd (TCL) has called for an extraordinary general meeting on July 30 seeking shareholders’ approval to delist from the Nairobi Securities Exchange after nine years of falling revenues and plummeting share price in a development.
If the proposal is approved then all the issued ordinary shares of the company, comprising 375,202,766 shares of par value Ksh 0.50($0.005) each, will be de-listed from the official list of the Alternative Investment Market Segment of the NSE, according to the firm’s board.
Company data shows that over 60 per cent of the top 13 individual shareholders, who owned more than 71 per cent of the firm at the time of listing in 2011, have sold their shares (52.03 per cent) while the remaining five have significantly reduced their stakes in the loss making firm to as low as 19.24 per cent.
The firm’s stock on the Nairobi bourse had dropped considerably to Ksh 2.45 ($0.02) by July 15, compared with the listing price of Ksh50($0.5) per share on July 14 2011; shareholders have lost 95 per cent of the value of their investments in the same period.
Delayed reporting
The firm, which has operations across East, Central and Southern Africa sought approval from the Capital Markets Authority to delay its financial performance figures for the year 2019 until the end of this month due to an equity transaction with its subsidiary East African Cables.
However, according to TCL’s annual report for 2018, the firm incurred another loss of Ksh3.5 billion ($35million) down from a net profit of Ksh468.26 million ($4.68 million) in 2010 prior to its listing on the NSE by way of introduction.
During the period, its working capital turned negative as current liabilities exceeded current assets by Ksh11.16 billion ($111.6 million), making it difficult for the firm to finance short term financial obligations.
Auditors at KPMG Kenya said the events and conditions that have engulfed the firm indicate a material uncertainty that may cast significant doubt on the firm’s ability to continue as a going concern, and therefore finding it difficult to realize their assets and discharge their liabilities in the normal course of business.
"Transcentury Plc is set to voluntarily delist from the NSE in line with on-going strategic initiatives upon receiving approval from its shareholders," said group chief executive Nganga Njiinu. "While we have seen liquidity reduce in the capital markets across the region, we have also seen an increase […]