The Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) has suspended trading of shares of New Vision Printing and Publishing Company Limited over sporadic share price decline.
The USE Chief Executive Officer, Mr Paul Bwiso, in a February 11, 2022 letter said the move is intended to evaluate the company’s recent trading activity.
“All market participants are hereby notified of a security halt on the New Vision…until further notice. The Exchange in keeping its mandate to ensure fair, transparent, orderly and efficient market, has imposed a security halt on the NVL counter as it conducts an expedited evaluation of recent activity which resulted in a sporadic price decline,” the letter reads in part.
New Vision Printing and Publishing Company is registered as a public limited liability company engaged in multi-Media business.
It was listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange in November 2004 with the issuance of 51,000,000 ordinary shares of a value of 19.66 per share giving an aggregate nominal capital of Shs1,002,660,000.
But New Vision Shares, which were selling at Shs551 in August 2016, dropped to Shs314 per share in January 2021 and further to Shs165 in January 2022, until they fell to the all-time low of Shs57 per share by February 2022.
New Vision’s majority shareholder is the government of Uganda.
The company which owns a number of media outlets like New Vision Newspaper, Bukedde newspaper, Bukedde TV, Bukedde Radio among others has been going through tough times.
Last year, its former Chief Executive Officer Robert Kabushenga told shareholders that the company had not made any profits and thus they wouldn’t get any dividends.
The majority shareholders are the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and Minister of State for Finance, Planning and Economic Development with a collective holding of 53.3 per cent. The public holds the remaining 46.7 per cent.
According to the 2020 annual report of the Uganda Securities Exchange, the Financial Markets industry was greatly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic as investors sought safer havens and more guaranteed returns considering the higher risk presented from the impact of the pandemic.