Jan 2015 Financial News

TCL shareholders meet February 9

Jan 14, 2015

TRINIDAD Cement Limited (TCL) will hold a special shareholders meeting at the Hilton Trinidad on February 9. The meeting was originally supposed to be held on January 22 but was rescheduled to February 9 due to challenges in sending the Notices to Shareholders within the statutory time frame.

A statement issued yesterday by the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange (TTSE) reiterated that one of the main items on the agenda is to remove a restriction which prohibits any person from holding more than 20 percent of the issued share capital of the company.

That restriction also prohibits any person from having more than 20 percent of the voting rights of the company. In its statement, TCL said this restriction is contained in Article Five of its Articles of Continuance (Restrictions on Share Transfers and Share Ownership).

TCL said these restrictions have the potential to restrict the marketability of the shares and in so doing may undermine shareholder value.

At the meeting, shareholders will also be updated on the company’s restructuring plan. TCL has said it anticipates that the removal of the 20 percent restriction plan “will facilitate the successful implementation of the restructing plan.”

In a letter dated December 31, 2014, former TCL Group CEO Rollin Bertrand called upon company shareholders to reject plans to remove this restriction as well as any proposal for a rights issue “with such a high level of dilution.”

In his letter, Bertrand alleged the removal of the company’s former board of directors last August “ had nothing to do with ‘performance’ but was really a thinly veiled plan to hand control of TCL to Cemex.”

He alleged this was “as promised by certain businessmen in 2002. Bertrand further claimed that recent allegations in the media about insider trading and debt “have exposed the major players and no doubt they are working assiduously to fulfill promises made over a decade ago to have Cemex control TCL.”

Source:
Newsday
Wednesday January 14, 2015

http://www.newsday.co.tt/business/0,205551.html