To raise demand for ‘listing’ again this time at AGM
By CL Jose
KOCHI/September 04-2022: The shareholders of Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) are ‘miffed’ at the management decision to skip cash dividend for the second year in a row.
CIAL, Kerala’s largest, and the country’s third largest international airport, is back in ‘black’ in 2021-22 (FY22) with a net profit of Rs26.12 crore after having posted a net loss of Rs85.10 crore in the previous financial year.
The company had decided to not pay dividend for the previous year (FY21) too after having closed the year with a loss, being the first loss of the company since 2002-03. The company had been paying cash dividend uninterruptedly since 2003-04 until last year.
Speaking to businessbenchmark.news, Devassykutty Padayattil, the secretary of the CIAL retail shareholders’ association, said a group of shareholders are meeting S Suhas, the managing director of the airport company, to apprise him of the concerns of the small shareholders, especially on the issue of dividend.
The association argues that CIAL, though has reported loss last year, is still in a financially sound position having accumulated reserves to the tune of Rs964.34 crore over the years, with a total cash and bank balance of about Rs95 crore as of March end, 2022.
Call for listing
The retail shareholders have long been demanding for the listing of the company shares on stock markets so that the small shareholders can have a realistic view of how much his/her shareholding is worth on a given day.
This will also help the small investors save themselves from being played into the hands of ‘big fish’ in the market as brokers are said to be on the prowl to buy out shares for a song from the unsuspecting shareholders.
Though CIAL is euphemistically hailed as the ideal model of a successful public-private-partnership (PPP), almost 50 per cent ownership is vested with three entities – Government of Kerala, Yusufali MA and NV George.
“I struggle to understand why on earth the management is turning a deaf ear to the listing demand from the ordinary public who hold CIAL shares. The government has always been callous towards this call and never bothered to even respond decently to this,” Devassykutty said.
NV George buys shares
In the meantime, NV George, one of the founding directors and once the second largest shareholder with close to 12 per cent shareholding in the company, seems to be looking to build up his stake in the company again.
George, who has been on a selling mode right since 2016-17 when he held 11.97 per cent stake in the company, divested his holding in the company to 7.31 per cent towards the beginning of FY22.
However, as if to reverse that trend, the record shows George has bought 7,08,900 shares during the financial year to up his stake to 7.49 per cent as of end-FY 22.
Authorised capital
The AGM, scheduled to take place on September 26, will consider, among other things, raising the authorised capital of the company from the present Rs400 crore to Rs500 crore.
