The Cochin International Airport Limited will start issuing the rights share for around 18,000 shareholders from July onwards. A decision in this regard was taken during a director board meeting of the airport company held in Thiruvananthapuram on March 27.
“The issue of rights share at a proportion of 4:1 (one share per holding of four shares) and at a price of Rs.50 will commence once the State Budget for the fiscal 2014- 15 is passed in the Assembly. This is because the government, a majority stakeholder in the company, has to make a contribution of Rs.138 crore towards the rights issue,” company sources said.
A formal decision with regard to issuing rights shares was taken during the 20{+t}{+h}annual general meeting of the company held last year in Kochi. The company has 9.4 crore of unsubscribed shares after it settled the debt-equity conversion dispute with the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (Hudco) two years ago and it is expecting to raise around 382.5 crore by way of rights issue allotment.
The total number of subscribed shares of the CIAL stands around 30.61 crore as on March 31, 2014. With a face value of Rs.10, the share value of CIAL has been on an upswing since 1999, when the airport became operational and stands about 20 times higher. The airport company could return double the amount of Rs.2500 it had received in 1994 from each of the individual investors in the form of deposits received under the Kisan Vikas Pathra scheme. During the period, the shareholders were also allotted 250 shares at a price of Rs. 10 each.
