Two options left for concerned shareholders of Adam investments

By Hiran H.Senewiratne

The shareholder certificate of any listed company is the most important document that every single shareholder possesses in the event of a de-listing of a company from the CSE and that could be used as proof to recover funds invested in the stocks, Head of Marketing of CSE Niroshan Wijesundara told the Island Financial Review recently.

“In the event of a delisting of a company,  with the share certificate, such investors have two options i.e. either offer those existing shares to the same company and recover money or sell it to another outside party and recover that money, ” Wijesundera said.  

‘He said that three companies namely Adam Investments , Ceylon and Foreign Traders and Adam Capital have applied for delisting. “Therefore, investors could do either one of the two options, which would be considered as private transfers and would have nothing to do with the CSE,” Wijesundera said.

The Island Financial Review spoke to him in the backdrop of Adam investments Plc, one of the oldest listed companies in the CSE has applied to de-list its company along with two other companies namely; Ceylon and Foreign Traders and Adam Capital belongs to the same entity.

Some shareholders are upset over what would happen to their funds that have been invested via the stock exchange  in the event of being removed or delisting from the CSE list.

According to shareholders, new management came into being in 2017 and  from 2018 onward the company never published/issued nor received  a single annual report or a  quarterly report, which was mandatory for every listed company in the CSE to publish results of the company . 

Further, the last Annual General Meeting was held in 2018. With those developments the company was warned by the CSE. Therefore, the company has applied to move out of the CSE in 2019, but still pending its decision, investors said.

The Company holds shares of privately held companies operating in various industries, such as apparel, metal, network communication and automobile, and in quoted equity shares in the CSE.

Minority shareholder John Abeydeera told the Island Financial Review that he has invested Rs four million from 2018 onwards the company has not published a single annual report nor quarterly results.

Chairman Dr. Ali Asger Shabbir Gulamhusein had promised to put the company in order but so far nothing has been materialised,” he said.

Another shareholder J.S.M Rauff said that he had bought 184,627 shares now it could be valued for Rs two million . Since 2018 the company has been mismanaged by the board of directors and their management is stuck because trading is not happening with the stock market, he said.

When the Island Financial Review tried to contact Chairman  Ali Asger Shabbir Gulamhusein he did not respond to queries about the status quo of the company. 

Company  Secretary Dilusha Gamage said she had already left the company couldn’t comment anything about the company.

Former Director of the company Dr Larry Adams said that he couldn’t comment on the company as he left it many years ago.