DDL releases supplement to annual report
Stock Market Update
Stabroek News
July 9, 2004
*The market information provided here is provided for informational and educational purposes only and is provided on a time delayed basis. GASCI does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any information contained on this page. Although the inform
Demerara Distillers Ltd. (DDL) has released supplementary information to its annual report for 2003, in response to a court case brought by three shareholders last month.
On June 10, the three shareholders, Rakesh Latchana, Christopher Ram and Eileen Cox had filed for an injunction as part of an unsuccessful attempt to have the company's Annual General Meeting called off until the disclosures were made. DDL later made a commitment to provide the information within 20 days.
In its supplemental report dated July 2 and signed by Company Secretary Ms R Vansluytman, the company includes a revised statement of the directors' interests which indicates as in the original annual report that Chairman Yesu Persaud has a beneficial interest of 4,654,573 shares and Komal Samaroo, 908,312. Samaroo's associate interest of 1,137141 shares is held beneficially. George Robinson has a beneficial interest of 339,124 and an associate interest of 3500, which were inadvertently omitted and are held by his wife, Rosamund Robinson.
The document also notes the additional 23,334 shares each held by directors Persaud, Samaroo and Robinson. It says, "Under the Company Share Purchase Plan Number 7 shares are set aside for employees. To date 51% of the value of the shares in this plan has been paid. The ownership of these shares is not transferred until the shares are fully paid up and they cannot be utilised to transact any business using them as security or otherwise until they are fully paid up."
DDL addresses the issue of a tax dispute with the Guyana Revenue Authority: "The matter related to the action brought by the company against the GRA over the assessment and demand of consumption taxes in the sum of G$1,072,989,851. The assessment was raised on the basis of a valuator, contrary to the basis confirmed by the President of Guyana and was calculated on the value of goods already including tax resulting in the tax being charged on a tax. Orders nisi were granted by the High Court to stay the execution of the assessment ...on the alleged grounds that these assessments were unconstitutional ....Based on legal advice management is of the opinion that the orders will be confirmed by the Court.
DDL also addresses the issue of directors' emoluments. "Further to the disclosures made in the report of the directors on page 20 of the annual report 2003 in accordance with section 163 (2) of the Companies Act 1991 the following amounts were paid to directors in respect of their service as directors of DDL..." It then gives the figure of $3.6M under the category of Commissions and states that no fees were paid to the directors by subsidiary companies.
Section 163 of the Act states that In the annual accounts .... "there shall be the amount of the emolument of each director of the company." It also states that the amount to be shown shall include emoluments paid to or receivable of his services as a director of a company or in respect of his services as a director of a company affiliated with the same group of companies...or otherwise in connection with the management of the affairs of the company or affiliate.
In the filings by the shareholders they had asked for the following information: a statement of every director's forename and surname, any former forename or surname, his usual residential address and his business occupation; particulars of other directorships held by the director and who is or who is to perform the functions of Managing Director; any interest in any shares or debentures of the company vested in the director, his wife or his infant children; a statement of the 733,834 of shares allegedly held by Chairman Persaud's wife; a statement of the 23,334 additional shares allegedly held by Persaud and Samaroo; a statement of the amount claimed by the Guyana Revenue Authority to be included in the directors' annual report as a contingent liability.
The Securities Council also has a matter before the court asking DDL to divulge information it says should have been included in the report and to the council. This is up for hearing on July 14.
A session 54 volume was six folds higher than last week's and activity on Wednesday grew heavier as the session wore on. Trading showed a consideration of $7,127,025 from 850,597 shares traded compared to the previous week's result of 145,485 shares at a total consideration of $1,222,542. Four stocks were active this week namely DDL, DTC, NBI and DIH.
It was a roller-coaster day for DDL, which started trading at $7.9 spending the first half of the session on a track of fresh session lows at 7.0, only to recover the entirety of its losses in a late rally that saw DDL close at $ 7.8 just within a short reach of its respective session highs.
DDL trades involved 779,997 (91.7%) shares which were traded at a Weighted Mean Average Price, WMAP of $7.8 and contributed $6,062,225 (85.1%) to the total consideration.
Trading in DIH stocks showed a total of 65,000 shares changing hands first at $4.9 then dropping to $4.8. The drift lower through the morning was largely the result of participants' hesitancy to buy DIH shares. The 65,000 DIH shares traded represented 7.6% of total shares and 4.4% of the total consideration ($317,000) with the Weighted Mean Average Price, WMAP being $4.9.
Trading in DTC involved 4,600 (0.5%) shares which were traded at a Weighted Mean Average Price, WMAP of $160 and contributed $736,000 (10.3%) to the total consideration. Finally, a total of 1,000 NBI shares changed hands at $11.8, up $1.0 from the previous close when 2000 shares changed hands and accounted for $11,800 of the total consideration.
Trading on the Stock Exchange continues next Monday at 10 AM at the offices of GASCI located on the corner of Avenue of the Republic and Robb Street. Latest information can be obtained from the website WWW.GASCI.COM. Broker contacts can be obtained from the website or by calling the Stock Exchange on either telephone numbers - 223 -6175-6.
July's first trading session once more saw heavy trading, particularly in DDL, with 780,000 shares changing hands. Shares in three other companies also traded, with only DTC remaining at previous prices. Prices in some stocks seem to be fluctuating around the bid/offer spread depending on whether a new order to buy or sell comes in. If a buy order comes in then the stock trades at the best offer from the previous session, whereas if a sell order comes in the stock trades at best bid. Hence the move in NBIC previously trading on best bid at 10.8 is now trading on best offer at 11.8. A similar situation occurred with GBTI in recent weeks fluctuating between 28 and 30 though it did not trade this session. For stocks with sizeable spreads such as DTC and SPL this could see large price movements simply due to this effect. The remaining two stocks that traded this session traded within the spreads from the close of the previous session: the average price at which DIH traded moved up a tick to 4.9 and DDL suffered a two tick fall-back with the average price falling to 7.8. Overall the market closed 11.3 index points at 1,037.5 an increase of 1.10%.