AMW to delist shares

Ravi Ladduwahetty

Associated Motorways PLC now under the new ownership of Al Futtaim Engineering LLC of United Arab Emirates has applied to the Colombo Stock Exchange for the delisting of its 1,575,095issued shares.

The reason for the delisting is due to the majority shareholder which has 97.5 per cent of the shares sees little meaning in keeping the company listed when it has almost the full stake under its ownership and also because the Dubai based conglomerate is also privately owned, AMW Chairman Tilak De Zoysa told Daily News Business yesterday.

He said the company has applied to the Colombo Stock Exchange for the delisting and the process has now been set in motion.

He also said that it was most likely that Al Futtaim will acquire the remaining shares of the minority shareholders which is a mere 2.5 per cent. There will also be a suspension of the trading of the share very soon, he said.

He also said the Board of Directors and the Senior Management will remain unchanged even after the delisting with the only exception being his brother Ajitha, the former Chairman who retired with the Al Futtaim acquisition.

Meanwhile, AMW Company Secretary Dayani De Silva said that there will be an Extra Ordinary General Meeting of the shareholders in mid December to seek their approval for the delisting but given the fact that the majority shareholder has 97.4 per cent, there will be very little resistance from the remaining minority shareholders, the largest whose stake is a minor 0.22 per cent.

The AMW share was trading at Rs. 174.50 at the time of the suspension of the trading yesterday and it is still not known at what price the Board will delist the share, she said.