NT had started giving away cash rewards of Rs 25 on each of its shares owned by the public and by the company´s employees beginning May 5. By the afternoon of that day, NT had already distributed dividends to around 3,500 of its shareholders. However, after the court issued an interim order based on a writ petition filed by seven of NT´s shareholders the entire process had come to a halt.
The shareholders had filed the petition asking the court to discontinue the dividend-distribution process citing that the cash reward being distributed by the company was too little.
NT, the country´s largest telecom company, had some three weeks ago announced that it would give away Rs 25 on each of its shares from a net profit of Rs 7.94 billion generated by the company in the last fiscal year. But public shareholders are demanding that they be given dividends based on the profit generated by NT since the time it was converted into a public company some four years ago.
The public shareholders are also demanding that each share worth Rs 100 that they had bought for Rs 600 last year be converted into six units of shares worth Rs 100 each. The public shareholders made these demands because they say they had to invest huge amounts when buying the company´s shares last year.
Last year, when NT had floated its shares to the public, it had put a price tag of Rs 600 on each of its shares. Unlike other companies that issue each share with a face value of Rs 100, NT had added a Rs 500 premium to each of its shares, citing that it had been operating on profit for three consecutive years. Assuming NT´s shares to be blue chips, general citizens had paid up to Rs 2,500 to lay their hands on a single share. But a year later, the value of NT´s share has come down to less than Rs 530, distressing many.
NT has more than 33,000 shareholders.
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