Sam Woode plans Ghana Stock Exhange delisting process

Sam Woode Limited is now making preparations to buy back all its shares held by minority shareholders following its suspension from the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) with effect from Tuesday, September 29, 2020.

The company has suspended its operations – which gave cause for its suspension by the GSE – but had announced its decision to delist from the stockmarket long before this, and indeed had got shareholders approval.

SWL, which is a publishing company, has informed GSE of the suspension of its operations due to being hard hit by the introduction of the new GES curriculum, which led to a subsequent obsolescence of its textbook inventories and the stoppage of its book sales operations.

The company has therefore filed a suspension of operations with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).

Rule 13(4)(a) of the GSE Listing Rules empowers GSE to suspend listing where a listed company has ceased to be an operating company. It is on this basis that GSE suspended the listing of SWL from Tuesday, September 29, 2020.

SWL has also informed GSE of a special resolution passed by its shareholders at its Annual General Meeting of November 21, 2019 to voluntarily delist from GSE, and the company’s plans to undergo restructuring.

The company is being restructured into a parent company, Sam-Woode Ltd, with two subsidiaries. The first subsidiary, SWL Learn Ltd, is a novel online Educational Portal (SWL Learn APP) hosted on http://swllearn.com/ and available on android and IOS devices.

This app is equipped with the latest Augmented and Virtual Reality Educational Technology. The second subsidiary is SWL Edutech Ltd which will be a printing press to be involved in printing and manufacturing teaching and learning materials.

SWL admits that it has fallen behind in its regulatory compliance at GSE and will expedite action on submitting all returns to GSE.

The GSE now has the mandate to ensure that SWL communicates with its investors, its plans to honour its voluntary de-listing obligations in line with the Exchange’s Rules; which means buying back its shares.

However there will be little pressure from shareholders since by the time it was suspended the company’s shares were trading at five pesewas.

The company has 21.83 million shares in issue outstanding.