India annual price discovery and Korea update
Following a draft proposal released in April, India’s market regulator SEBI recently finalised a market reform aimed at enhancing price discovery and liquidity for the nearly 70 holding companies listed on the country’s stock exchanges. ... more
Stock delisting in India
SEBI announced a consultation to improve the stock delisting framework.
SEBI’s main proposal would allow any company to be delisted via a fixed price tender offer, contingent upon 90% acceptance by all shareholders. This would be a great improvement on the current system of reverse book-building, which allows shareholders with small stakes to hold a transaction hostage by driving up the tender price to unreasonable levels, frequently resulting in the offeror walking away. ... more
The outlier rejoins the pack
We have been writing for some time about the bottoming-out of the value factor which started in November 2020.
This trend has been observed globally and among the various markets of the Asia-Pacific region.
However, one market had been notably absent from the trend: ... more
Engagement update
We have two situations which are public. The first is NBI Industrial Finance in India, a company which owns shares of a major listed cement company worth almost five times its market cap and which carries on almost no other business.
This month, we sent an open letter to the board which we also released to the press and uploaded to a dedicated website (link).
The letter was structured as a list of questions, in line with our policy of first seeking explanations for corporate behaviour before making our own suggestions.
In the first instance, we are asking: ... more
Metrica Partners sends letter to board of NBI Industrial Finance
- Requesting explanation for zero dividend payout despite extremely strong balance sheet
- Asking why company persists with a structure that causes double taxation for shareholders
- Seeking to understand purpose of listing with almost 95% of assets in Shree Cement shares
SINGAPORE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Metrica Partners Pte. Ltd. (“Metrica”) manages investment funds that are among the largest minority shareholders of NBI Industrial Finance Co. Ltd. (“NBI”, NSE: NBIFIN, Bloomberg: NBI IN). ... more
Dividend distribution tax and holding companies in India
A frequent topic of conversation was the upcoming abolition of Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT), which is significant for holding companies. ... more