Dear Editor,
The Chairman of Guyana’s blue-chip Banks DIH, Mr. Clifford Reis, has a problem. In my estimation, it is not a little problem, and it has something to do with the pricing of the shares of the company. In no particular order, I read the story in Demerara Waves (“Major public company raises “serious concerns” about Guy-ana Stock Exchange trading”, January 28). “Serious concerns” should be a serious concern. A lot of people, possibly operating inside some charmed and insulated circle. The record is of people being slapped with hefty fines, and even sent to jail for stock trading violations in other jurisdictions that are well-policed, that are about the law, integrity, and professionalism. I say nothing poor about the Guyana Stock Exchange, other than the “serious concerns” of Mr. Reis do not leave its people and its operation in a good light.
For whatever it is worth, I own no shares of Banks DIH; am a nonexistent customer on any of its strong stuff. When the season is right, the preference is for green European bottles. Now to brass tacks. Chairman Reis is onto something, and it is the stuff that involves either hot money, or funny money, or unsteady people, to use a few familiar foreign descriptions. He didn’t say, so the heavy hauling is left to me. Market manipulation, if I may. So, also is something called “painting the tape.” The first is simple enough, the latter is about marking the close to favour some nefarious scheme. I read what I interpreted to be some transactions that have all the elements of “pre-arranged trades.’ What I do know is that Mr. Reis sounded an ominous warning: the company can issue instructions to its Transfer Agent: no change in beneficial ownership, as evidenced in the books.
Mr. Reis had another concern. Shares changing hands, viz., 80,000 shares involving 25 persons within the window of a month. In the low trading volume environment overseen by the local Stock Exchange, 80,000 shares of a single company in 20 business days (give or take), is an eye-opener. Somebody at the Stock Exchange, armed with some systems, and some market wisdom, should be monitoring for such occurrences that must trigger alarms and unfurl red flags. The Banks DIH chairman shouldn’t be the one to be ringing that bell. The fact that Mr. Reis went public with his anxieties could indicate that he did not proceed too well with the Stock Exchange, or made no progress at all. When a company of the standing of Banks DIH takes to the airwaves, something is not quite right, might be actually rancid.
Look at where things stand. Banks DIH has everything going for it. Diversified company. Many product lines. Outstand-ing corporate reputation. A record of healthy, if not more than pleasing, earnings. My brow furrows with attempts to recall when the company recorded a loss, or less than stellar earnings. In addition to a vibrant income statement, the Balance Sheet speaks for itself, as in vigorous and full of vim. Incidentally, that (vim) might be a competitor’s product. The company is expanding with a new US$71M bottling project, and without borrowing a cent of the GY$14 billion plus equivalent. Nor raising capital through issuance of new shares. Man, that takes some doing. Now, I asked to be pardoned. Sometimes I think I am Solomon; but, on other occasions, I wonder if I am stark staring silly. This country does that to people, who hang around here too long. Politics. Environ-ment. Standards. Ethics.
For I have this simplest thought put in the form of a question: what happened to the shares of Banks DIH, as lamented by Chairman Reis? The share price, that is. What is weighing it down, and holding it down? Any honest analysis of the company’s consistent performance, proven management, dividend distribution record, and books and records that I believe are better than most, should lead to that now multimillion dollar question. What is going on with Banks DIH’s shares (price)? I may concede that the more pointed question should be: what is going on at the Guyana Stock Exchange. If this company’s share price is stuck in the mud, then the shares of all other companies traded locally should also be stagnant. Maybe, there is a different way, a Guyanese way, through which things are done here.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall