Displaying items by tag: Shares
India: Investment research firm Hindenburg Research has accused Adani Group of conducting a 'stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme' over a period of ‘decades.’ The US-based firm alleged that listed companies belonging to Adani Group are indirectly part-owned by shell entities and funds connected to the Adani family’s private offshore trusts and companies. The listed companies have purportedly paid money into the offshore trusts and companies, which in turn funded the shell entities and funds investing and trading in Adani Group stocks. Hindenburg Research said that four Adani Group listed companies are ‘near the delisting threshold’ under Indian law requiring a minimum 25% non-promoter holding in listed companies.
Bloomberg has reported that Hindenburg Research said that its two-year investigation into Adani Group uncovered a ‘vast labyrinth of offshore shells’ managed by Adani Group chair Gautam Adani’s brother Vinod Adani. It identified 38 such shell entities based in Mauritius, and other entities based in Cyprus, Singapore, the UAE and the Caribbean. It reported that ‘many’ Vinod Adani-controlled entities show ‘no obvious signs of operations.’ Nonetheless, they have collectively ‘moved billions of dollars.’ Hindenburg Research has uncovered evidence of what it called ‘efforts that seem designed to mask the shell entities, including recurrent listings of ‘nonsensical services’ on their websites. Many of these allegedly have no named employees, and were formed on the same days as others. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) confirmed that the offshore funds in question are subject to an on-going investigation.
In a statement, Adani Group’s chief financial officer (CFO) Jugeshinder Singh said that Hindenburg Research had not made “any attempt to contact us or verify the factual matrix.” Singh described the allegations “stale, baseless and discredited.”
Hindenburg Research has taken a short position on Adani Group, meaning that it may make money should the price of shares in Adani Group drop.
Separately, Adani Group acquired a 63% stake in Ambuja Cements and a 57% stake in ACC from Switzerland-based Holcim through an offshore special purpose vehicle (SPV) in September 2022.
Hindenburg Research's report on Adani Group, entitled ‘Adani Group: How The World’s 3rd Richest Man Is Pulling The Largest Con In Corporate History’ can be found here.
Altor Fund Manager increases FLSmidth stake to over 5%
19 January 2023Denmark: FLSmidth has notified investors that Altor Fund Manager has increased its holding of shares in the company to over 5%. The transaction took place on 18 January 2023.
Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe suspended from Zimbabwe Stock Exchange
13 January 2023Zimbabwe: Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe has secured a suspension on trading in its shares on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange until April 2023. Chronicle News has reported that the Holcim subsidiary requested the suspension, in which to 'address in-house challenges.'
The producer assured the market that this latest development 'will not in any way affect business, amid consideration of various courses of action, with a view to protecting the business and the interests of all stakeholders.'
Indonesia: State-owned Semen Indonesia has expanded its stake in subsidiary Solusi Bangun Indonesia to 84%. The group acquired the new Solusi Bangun Indonesia shares from another cement subsidiary, Semen Indonesia Industri Bangunan.
Solusi Bangun Indonesia’s four cement plants in Java and Aceh command 14.8Mt/yr-worth of production capacity and employ 2400 people.
Dangote Cement to commence 10% share buyback
14 December 2022Nigeria: Dangote Cement’s shareholders have authorised a buyback of up to 10% of the company’s issued shares.
Chair Aliko Dangote said “Over the past decade, Dangote Cement has recorded exponential growth across all areas. Group cement volumes are now at almost 30Mt/yr, our production capacity has tripled to 51.6Mt/yr and we export cement from five countries across Africa.”
Investor acquires US$5.66m-worth of Sinai Cement shares
07 December 2022Egypt: The Egyptian Exchange has published a filing regarding the acquisition of US$5.66m-worth of Sinai Cement shares by an investor on 7 December 2022.
France-based Vicat holds the majority stake in Sinai Cement, while investor Asmaa Amer Gharib acquired a 7.5% stake in the producer in March 2022 for US$4.05m.
Holcim to delist from Euronext Paris
21 November 2022France/Switzerland: Holcim plans to delist all shares from the Euronext Paris exchange. Shares in the Switzerland-based group will continue to trade on the SIX Swiss Exchange. The cement producer explained its decision in terms of its need to simplify its trading structure. It expects thereby to further reduce its administrative costs and requirements.
Grupo Argos enlarges shareholding in Cementos Argos
18 November 2022Colombia: Grupo Argos announced its purchase of US$2.49m-worth of shares in Cementos Argos. The purchase accounts for 0.3% of the subsidiary's share capital. At the start of 2022, Grupo Argos held a 59% majority stake in the cement producer. The next biggest single shareholders were investment services company AFP y Cesantías Protección, with 8%, and pension fund management company SAFP Porvenir, with 6.3%.
Borneo Oil to enlarge Makin Teguh stake to 60%
31 October 2022Malaysia: Borneo Oil has entered into a conditional share sale agreement with Makin Teguh's 45% owner Global 2332 to enlarge its stake in the cement company by 31%, to 60%. Borneo Oil has proposed a private placement to raise US$11.3m towards funding the US$21.2m deal. It previously completed a US$4.65m shares issue on 26 October 2022. Bernama Daily Malaysian News has reported that Makin Teguh plans to commence operations at its 220,000t/yr Sabah integrated cement and clinker plant in early 2023. It owns two limestone mines, with total reserves of 14.4Mt.
Lucky Cement buys back more shares
18 October 2022Pakistan: Lucky Cement bought back more of its own shares on 17 October 2022. The total value of the purchase was US$408,000.
Lucky Cement previously bought back US$212,000-worth of shares earlier in October 2022, under the same resolution of it board from 20 September 2022.