INVESTORS on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) have expressed concern over their investments in the 11 delisted companies from the stock market, saying the removal of the companies from the market may signal the end of their holdings in the affected companies.They stated that the market regulators ought to have ensured that the companies signed a commitment to their shareholders before their exit from the securities market.The NSE had, penultimate week, delisted 11 companies from the official list of the Exchange following the companies inability to meet their post listing requirements, even as the companies could not pay dividends to shareholders in the last seven to 10 years.Nigerian Tribune investigations, last Friday, showed that the affected companies had been placed under suspension for close to one year now and were not meeting their obligations in terms of fees to the market.The companies affected were Nigercem Plc, Albarka Air Plc, Foremost Diaries Plc, Wiggins Teape Nigeria plc, Okitipupa Oil Palm Plc, First Capital Investment, Trust Plc, Flexible Packaging Plc, Netpak Plc, Krabo Nigeria Plc and Tropical Petroleum Plc.The NSE had in 2009 de-listed 64 companies from its daily official trading list.Further investigation showed that investors were afraid that it might be difficult for them to recoup their investment in some of the delisted companies since most of them held no AGM for a long time.Mr. Boniface Okezie, Chairman Progressive Shareholders Association, reacting to the development said the action by the NSE was another loss for investors in the already crisis-ridden market.He called on the authorities concerned to wind up the companies and sell the available assets to pay shareholders their investment if the companies could not be revived.Let the authorities wind up the companies and sell the assets to pay investors and if they want to revive and return to the exchange, they should hasten up and so that investors will not lose much, he said.In his own contribution, Mr. Awopetu Olukoya, an independent investor, noted that the affected investors felt betrayed by the NSE for delisting some of the companies they invested in, adding that they invested in those companies because they were quoted on the Stock Exchange.Olukoya also blamed regulators for not being proactive in safeguarding shareholders investment.When a company refuses to release its financial report for a period of two years, there should be adequate enlightenment to educate investors that there is no point to keep on investing in such stocks or holding them.He called on the regulators to always monitor companies to ensure that companies release their results on time, noting that this was what happened in the banking sector where the banks kept on posting unrealistic figures without the regulators questioning them.The NSE has recently made it compulsory for quoted companies to make their quarterly result and forecast available to it for verification, for which sanction will be meted out on any defaulting company.
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