|
It seems there was more than meets the eye behind the sudden stockbuyback offer extended Sunday night by Zoko Enterprises, whichlifted its price 25% in Monday trading. The company later announced it had been slapped by a class actionon behalf of public shareholders the previous day. With just 5.2% of its shares in public hands, Zoko has been on theTel Aviv Stock Exchange's maintenance list since July 2010 andstood to be delisted altogether in two months. The remaining votingshares are split between chairman Sir Bernard Schreier with 66.6%,Yoav Harlap with 20.2% and CEO Yossi Smira with 8%. Zoko imports,markets and services heavy industrial and earthmoving equipment. The request for approval of the class action against the company,its directors and major stakeholders was filed in court Sunday byattorney Oded Goldstein at the initiative of minority shareholderLivnat Weizmann, who estimated the damage caused by limitations onthe stock's marketability, by virtue of being on the maintenancelist, at at least NIS 12 million. Arguing that the respondents deprived minority shareholders oftheir rights, violating their duty to act properly and in goodfaith by not taking sufficient action to prevent the stock'splacement on the maintenance list, Weizmann filed a petitionedrequesting the respondents either take the necessary steps torestore regular trading or buy the public's holdings at an agreedupon price. She also asked to be compensated by the respondents as leadplaintiff and asked that they assume all legal costs. Weizmann claims that Schreier and Harlap appear to have conspiredin keeping the company on the maintenance list, with the intentionof having it delisted from trading altogether and taking thecompany private. Goldstein pointed to an Israel Securities Authority position paperfrom July 2008 stating that being placed on the maintenance listcould impact a security's price due to concern about itstradability, and that a stakeholder might have an interest incausing such an effect - if he plans to make a purchase offer, forexample. Goldstein said that, in its position paper, the authority requiredcompanies to state what action they intend to take in order toavoid being transferred from normal trading to the maintenancelist, where trading takes place for just several minutes a day, orwhich steps will be taken to return it to regular trading. According to Goldstein, Zoko wrote in its 2011 financialstatements, published at the end of March, "As of this date,neither the company nor the controlling shareholders, to the bestof its knowledge, have reached any decision whatsoever on takingaction to fulfill the conditions for the renewal of trading on themain list." In other words, the company admitted four months before it was dueto be completely delisted from trading that, for two years, nothingwas done by its controlling owners or directors to restore Zokoshares to normal trading. From his phone conversations with company stakeholders, Goldsteinconcluded that they hadn't succeeded in reaching an agreement evenamong themselves on the steps necessary to regularize trading ofthe company's shares, and consequently that they aren't doinganything to resolve the matter. The company's buyback offer for its publicly held shares was set atNIS 8.85 per share, in precise proportion to its capital equity asreported at the end of the first quarter, at a total cost of NIS9.8 million. This reflects a 45% premium over the stock's averageprice during the six months prior to the announcement. I am an expert from digitalquranpen.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Digital Quran Pen Reader , Haji Player Manufacturer, Arabic Alphabet Chart,and more.
Related Articles -
Digital Quran Pen Reader, Haji Player Manufacturer,
|
