Walton Hi-Tech to offload more shares for investors` interest

Walton Hi-Tech Industries Limited has decided to offload more shares in the stock market protecting the interests of general investors.

The sponsors-directors are planning to invest money, they will receive from shares offload in new industries.

Golam Murshed, Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Walton Hi-Tech Industries Limited, in this regard has called on Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) Chairman Prof Shibli Rubayat Ul Islam.

Earlier on Sunday (September 12), BSEC requested three large-cap firms including Walton to make sure that their sponsors offload further shares in the secondary market to increase the free-floating shares at least up to 10% of the total shares.

Following the move, the share market witnessed a negative impact, declining all the price indexes on both the Dhaka and Chittagong Stock Exchanges.

On Tuesday (September 14, 2021) Walton MD met the BSEC chairman at his office in the capital in this context.

The main agenda of the meeting was to reach an appropriate decision over share offload preserving the interests of shareholders.
Sources said the meeting was successful for which Walton sponsors-directors decided to offload new shares in the market.

According to sources, Walton Hi-tech Industries currently has 0.97% free-float shares in the market. The company will offload more 4.03 percent shares in next three years taking the Walton's tradable share in the secondary market to 5%. After that, the company will take decision about offloading another 5% shares discussing with the BSEC authorities.

Golam Murshed in this connection said, Walton is conducting its overall activities including business operations in accordance with the rules and regulations of the capital market. We met the BSEC chairman for the interest of general investors and the overall development of the market and the country. The sponsors-directors of Walton had a request to increase the free-float shares to 5 percent within the next 3 years. The BSEC chairman has assured to consider it for the sake of investors and the stock market.

Meanwhile, Company Secretary Rafiqul Islam, FCS, said according to rule, sponsors-directors can't offload shares during the lock-in period. However, the sponsors-directors of Walton agreed to offload more shares with special consideration at the request made by BSEC and they have plans to invest the received money from offloaded shares in new industries.

Walton made its debut at the Dhaka Stock Exchange on September 23, 2020, having its total shares as 30 crore 29 lakh 28 thousand and 343. Demand for Walton shares has been high among investors since its debut in the market. Walton had a market capitalization of Tk 7,633 crore at the time of listing while the market capitalization of Walton stood at Tk 40,831 crore according to the last working day on Tuesday. This is highest market capitalization as a Bangladeshi company while second overall after Grameenphone.