The Thanh Thanh Cong Sugar Joint Stock Company (TTCS), stock code SBT, held its 2016 – 2017 annual shareholders’ meeting on Monday, the first since its merger earlier this month with Bien Hoa Sugar Joint Stock Company (BHS), stock code BHS.

The TTCS’ Board of Directors (BoD) submitted a proposal to change the company name to Thanh Thanh Cong – Bien Hoa Joint Stock Company (TTC Sugar) and proposed to increase the number of board members from five to six, as well as electing two new members for the 2017-2022 terms.

The meeting on Monday also introduced changes to the company’s business plan, including an adjustment of foreign investors’ ownership ratio, redemption of treasury shares, and tackling the fact that a number of existing shareholders have been transferring over 25 per cent of total outstanding shares without making public tender offers.

On another note, the BoD announced a purchase of more than 83.5 million treasury shares, equivalent to 15 per cent of TTCS’ current charter capital, using the order matching method within the HCM Stock Exchange’s (HOSE) permissive range in the next six months.

They also submitted a plan to issue more than 33.41 million new shares to pay dividends to existing shareholders at an annual rate of 6 per cent.

Remarkably, the BoD mentioned two plans to increase charter capital through private securities offering in 2018.

One such plan involves the issuance of more than VND885 billion ($39.4 million) worth of convertible bonds with maturity dates of two to five years and an annual yield of up to 10 per cent. This plan can be substituted with the issuance of about 88.5 million common shares at the current price of VND21,500 ($0.957) per share.

Back in May 2017, TTCS’ shareholders agreed to the merger between TTCS and BHS, and the plan to swap all BHS shares in circulation with additionally issued SBT shares, which is considered a strategic step to improve both companies’ productivity and competitiveness.

Since then, TTCS had issued more than 303 million shares in lieu of BHS existing shares under the merger plan. Through this issuance, the company’s charter capital increased from VND2.53 trillion (US$112.6 million) to VND5.57 trillion ($247.9 million), equivalent to more than 557 million shares and a total market capitalisation of over VND15 trillion ($667.8 million).

SBT shares are currently trading on the HOSE at $0.957 per share, with total shares at 2 million as of Monday. — VNS