As TransCentury Seeks To Voluntarily Delist From NSE, This Is What You Should Know

Every business has a strategy for growth. These strategies often include restructuring of policies and realigning of investment goals, tailoring them towards what gives the business maximum benefits.

The goal of every business is to make profits, serve the customers to their expectations, and safeguard and protect the interests of its shareholders.

No business operates in a vacuum. Every business faces challenges and the only wail to sail through the storm is through changing strategies for the benefit of the business.

Running a business is about being wise. It is about having a third eye that is able to see and identify trouble before it comes knocking at the door and avoids it way in advance.

Voluntary Delisting Of TransCentury

On Thursday, July 9, 2020, morning, TransCentury PLC announced its plans to voluntarily delist from the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE). According to the company, the decision to delist from the NSE is in line with ongoing strategic initiatives.

The delisting will take place upon receiving approval from its shareholders, who have been invited for an Extraordinary General Meeting Thursday, July 30, 2020, where among other things, they will discuss the withdrawal proposal.

“Pursuant to Regulation 22(4) of the Capital Markets (Securities) (Public Offers, Listings and Disclosures) Regulations, 2002, all the issued ordinary shares of the Company comprising 375,202,766 shares of par value 0.50 shillings each shall be de-listed from the official list of the Alternative Investment Market Segment of the NSE,” stated the company in the invite to their shareholders.

Here is part of the invite obtained by Soko Directory:

Recommendations by the Board

The decision to delist TransCentury was passed by the Board of the company. The board says the recommendation is in line with the 4 key areas that the company has been focusing on; delivery of commercial opportunities and driving pipeline growth; debt reprofiling to match cash flows; fundraising to unlock growth; and accelerating execution of emerging opportunities.

“The Group has made significant progress across all its businesses in delivering robust commercial opportunities and in debt reprofiling, over 90 percent of the debt has been successfully restructured thereby strengthening the balance sheet and allowing more cash to be redirected to working capital,” said the company in a statement to the media.

According to the board, the focus of the company remains on attracting the funding that is aligned to the Group strategy to be able to realize full value from opportunities at hand.

“A significant source of such capital however remains unavailable to the business while it remains listed, including the fast-growing pools of sector-specific capital targeting private/ non-listed businesses,” said the Board.

“While we have seen liquidity reduce in the capital markets across the region, we have also seen an increase in funding that is available for private/ non-listed businesses, especially in the sectors that we focus on and have received interest from potential financiers who would provide capital that is structured in line with our strategic plan,” the Group Chief Executive Officer Mr. Nganga Njiinu said, “We, therefore, want to position the business to access these additional sources of growth capital to be able to capitalize on the great opportunities we have created in the last 3 years,” added Mr. Njiinu.

In addition to accessing funding for the Company, TC Board and Management envisions delisting will provide the Company the opportunity for quick actions on strategic interventions and to refocus more resources to execution of strategy and accelerating growth.

“The decision to delist from the NSE is in line with the next phase of our strategy. This, however, does not change our business mandate and we will continue to engage and deliver value to all our stakeholders,” added Mr. Njiinu.

Why Is TransCentury Delisting?

TC is voluntarily delisting from the NSE as a strategic restructuring measure to allow the business:

Access to additional sources of growth capital to capitalize on great opportunities created in the last 3 years

Private equity that might not necessarily be looking for listed entities b. Focused and sector-specific funding

Quick action on strategic interventions

Give the Board and Management the flexibility and time to restructure the business without prejudicing shareholders.

Refocus resources currently dedicated to maintaining listing to execution on strategy accelerating growth operational costs associated with listing statuses such as licenses and continuous listing obligations.