Ceylon Oxygen to announce de-listing

Hiran H. Senewiratne

EGM: The Board of Directors of Ceylon Oxygen Limited (COL) is likely to convene an Extraordinary General Meeting soon to announce the de-listing of the company from the Colombo Stock Exchange, t sources said.

The Board will hold an Extraordinary General Meeting probably on May 30 for the purpose of officially announcing the de-listing of the entity from the stock market, Bartleet Mallory Stockbrokers sources said.

COL's majority shareholdings were held with a company called, "Yara International", which was 70.8 per cent of the total shareholding. This amounts to 4.78 million numbers of share units.

Last year, Yara International entered into an agreement with another company called Specialised Gas to dispose of their existing shareholding of Ceylon Oxygen.

The entire shares of COL's were bought by Specialised Gas at Rs. 242 per share. The company had invested Rs. 1157 million for the purchase of shares from Yara International.

It is said that towards the end of last year the company had a 30 per cent mandatory offer, which is approximately 6.32 million shares, sources said.

After the mandatory offer Specialised Gas held 93.63 per cent of stakes of Ceylon Oxygen while 6.37 per cent shares were with the public.

According to the Company's Act, the companies that are listed with the Colombo Stock Exchange should release 10 per cent of the total shareholding with the public, which compelled them to be de-listed in the stock market.

However, stock market sources said Ceylon Oxygen shares are not traded in the market properly because they are illiquid in nature and the public are not enthusiastic to purchase shares of that company owing to that.