PBC to be suspended from Ghana Stock Exchange

The Ghana Stock Exchange is to suspend the listing status of licensed cocoa buyer, PBC Limited, from the bourse, come this Thursday, August 15.

It follows the company’s inability to comply with two requirements of the GSE, it said in a statement issued Tuesday [August 13] morning.

It mentioned the breached regulations as failure to publish financial results for the 2018 financial year and failure to redeem a debt instrument issued earlier.

“The non-publication is in breach of the continuing listing obligations under the GSE Listing Rules,” the GSE said.

The financial year of PBC, which was previously called Produce Buying Company, ended in September 2018.

The GSE’s notice to suspend the company added that “PBC has also failed to redeem the Tranche P4 of its note program, which matured on December 6, 2018.

Part VI of the GSE Listing Rules outlines that a listed company shall comply with the continuing listing obligations and disclosure policy outlined in the Rules.

The prescribed sanctions for failing to abide by that regulation are specified in Rules 13(4)(c) and 13(4)(e) of the Listing Rules.

They empower the GSE to “suspend listing or compulsorily de-list securities where the company has failed to comply, or is unable, or unwilling to comply for any reason whatsoever with the Exchange’s requirements on continuing listing obligations and also where the company has failed to comply with its Listing Agreement, or other agreements with the Exchange, or has failed to comply with the Exchange’s Rules and disclosure policy as set out in Parts VI and VII of the Rules.”

The planned action of the GSE also comes in the wake of recent protests by staff of PBC against their Managing Director, Mr Kofi Owusu-Boateng, and the Board Chairman, Mr Charles B. Ntim, over allegations of mismanagement.

Last Tuesday, August 6, the staff picketed at the company’s head office in Accra to register their displeasure.

Beyond accusing the board and management of failing the staff and the company, they asked the appointing authority to revoke their appointments and bring in capable hands to revive the company.

PBC, which is the biggest cocoa buyer, is majority owned by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and the Government of Ghana, through the Ministry of Finance.

The two lead shareholders own almost 75 per cent of the company, which recently diversified from its core business of cocoa buying into real estate and shea nut processing through the establishment of the Golden Bean Hotel in Kumasi and the Shea Factory in Buipe.