The 20th Annual General Meeting of Cochin International Airport Limited held in Kochi on Friday decided in favour of the airport company going for a rights issue.
“The State government has a very open mind to the demand for a rights issue. Considering the recurring demand from the share holders, steps will be taken to issue shares to the existing shareholders at a proportion of 4:1 and at a price of around Rs.50,” Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said after the 20th Annual General Meeting of the company. The announcement came even as the minority shareholders were gearing up to corner the company director board for not considering the long-pending demand.
Company officials pointed out that the proposal for rights issue at 4:1 (one for every four shares) required a green signal from the company AGM.
Devasikutty Padayatil, general secretary of Shareholders’ Organization of Cochin International Airport Limited (SOCIAL), said minority shareholders were demanding issue of shares at par (1:1). “The company director board has scaled down our demand. But we are sticking to our original demand,” he said.
Mr. Chandy, in a general meeting of the airport company in 2012, promised to favourably consider the demand for a rights issue at par. Earlier this week, representatives of SOCIAL raised the issue with him once again.
The other major decisions taken during the AGM were to raise its borrowing limits to Rs.1,500 crore from the current ceiling of Rs.300 crore and to provide a dividend of 18 per cent on the paid up equity shares. The AGM also reappointed Ports Minister K. Babu, Industries Minister P.K. Kunhalikutty and Finance Minister K.M. Mani to the company director board.
Drinking water project In his speech, Chief Minister said CIAL was also setting up a drinking water project in association with the State government covering the Kanjoor, Nedumbassery and Sreemoolanagaram grama panachayats. Further, the infrastructure subsidiary of the airport company is implementing a 11 mega Watt solar power project, which will take the airport company to power-neutral status by next year.
