The Pioneer Kitchenware Limited (PKL), a privately owned company with interest in the production and sale of aluminum household wares, has temporarily lost its status as a listed company on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE).
The move followed the decision by the GSE to suspend PKL from the bourse, citing the company’s disobedience to stock market rules.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which regulates the country’s capital market has consequently requested a meeting it, the GSE and management of PKL to deliberate on the matter.
The suspension, the first of its kind in the history of the Accra Bourse, is expected to send warning signals to other listed companies that failure to meet the standards set by the GSE and other stock market regulators for listed institutions could cause them a suspension or outright delisting.
A circular which announced that the listing status of PKL has been suspended stated that the decision has become necessary due to PKL’s “failure to observe the continuing listing obligations.”
Such obligations, according to the circular dated March 21, 2012, included the company’s “failure to hold annual general meetings.” Attempts to get the company to comment on the matter failed as some of its office lines captured in the GSE 2010 Fact Book were either off or taken over by other institutions.
Checks by the GRAPHIC BUSINESS at the GSE, however, indicated that the company has also not paid dividend to its shareholders since 2006.
At the time of PKL’s suspension from the bourse by the GSE, the company’s shares were being traded at GH¢0.06 per share. Its market capitalisation stood at GH¢2 million and the total number of shares it issued were at 33.34 million.
The company was listed on the GSE on August 25, 1995, 36 years after it was incorporated as a privately owned company in the area of production and sale of aluminum household wares including casseroles, various cookware sets, pans, and buckets.
The GSE’s 2010 Fact Book, the document that tracks the performance and financial details of listed companies on yearly basis, was even more revealing. The book showed that the performance of PKL has been consistently dipping since 2007.
The company’s annual turnover for 2008 slipped to GH¢2.88 million, about GH¢315,977 lower than the previous year’s turnover of GH¢3.19 million. Consequently, PKL recorded an after tax loss of GH¢381,630, also higher than the 2007 loss of GH¢263,542.
That slide in the company’s yearly performance worsened into 2009, bringing its turnover for that year to GH¢2.15 million. The after tax loss, however, improved to GH¢20,137 in 2009, thanks to a higher return on its recovery from debtors.
It is not clear if PKL will vigorously push for a lifting of the current suspension handed it by the GSE due to the already dull nature of the stock on the market and not so enticing financial statements it had accumulated over the last few years.
Source: Daily Guide
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