CAMELOT to move to first list of GSE

Accra, Aug. 6, GNA - CAMELOT Ghana Limited (CMLT), a security-printing firm, is to join the elite companies on the first official list of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) by the end of this year.

This follows the company's ability to meet the profitability criterion necessary for it to join the first list of the exchange. Under the Exchange rules, a company is considered profitable if it is able to post more profit than losses in the immediate past successive five years.

CAMELOT is one of the two companies on the Exchange's second list. The other company is Home Finance Company Limited (HFC). Mr S.K Yamoah, Managing Director of the Exchange, announced this when the company took its turn on the "fact behind the figures" series organised for listed companies to explain the factors that contribute to their performance.

Mr. Yamoah said CAMELOT, which failed to meet the profitability criterion when it enlisted on the Exchange in 1999, had in the past five years posted reasonable profit.

The company made 154 million cedis in 1999, 164 million in 2000 and 623 million cedis in 2001.

Last year, it posted 181 million cedis and a healthy profit of 282 million cedis as at the end June this year.

Mrs. Elizabeth Villars, Managing Director of the company, told group of stock analysts, journalists and investors that CAMELOT had, with perseverance and expert advice overcome problems it faced in the past year.

Last year, some of the company's machines broke down as a result of consistent power outages. However, the company managed to move up its half-year dismal performance of 19.34 million to 181.32 million at the end of 2002, falling short of the projected figure for the year.

The Managing Director said following advice of leading financial firm, the company was able to evolve a five-year strategic plan that focused mostly on the core profitable products.

Mrs Villars said it is in pursuant of the plan that the company had been able to register remarkable results for the first half of the year. Turnover fixed at 3.53 billion, registering a five per cent increase over last year's figures.

Operating profit before tax moved to 377.2 million cedis from 27.6 million cedis while shareholders profit went up to 281.55 million cedis compared to 19.3 million cedis for the same period in 2002. Mrs Villars said the company was investing in sophisticated technology and development of its human resource to sustain the current level of improvement.

This has led to the introduction of innovation and improved sophistication against fraud into the company's security printed product lines, which included cheques, payment orders, value books and gift vouchers.

Mrs Villars touched on recent media publications on the company's corporate management practices and said the allegations made against it were based on the "whims of an intellectually mischievous shareholder."

The issues mentioned in the said publications bordered on CAMELOT's mode of allocating board membership.

Mrs Villars said the mode of appointment of directors to serve on the company's board is in conformity with its code and it was not based on who owned majority shares as was being claimed. She said the company's practice of appointment to the Board is also coherent with the company's regulations of the Registrar General's Department and acknowledged by the Stock Exchange and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

She therefore, urged anybody, who had a problem with the procedure to approach the company for explanation.