Commercial Bank, CSE in miscommunication

Commercial Bank share trading was halted on Monday by the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) due to the bank not notifying the regulator about its aborted Annual General Meeting (AGM). The AGM on March 28 was adjourned due to a lack of quorum. “We only had 15 percent of the shareholders at the meeting, whereas it should have been 50 percent,” a company official told The Sunday Times FT. He said that because of this the resolution for Commercial Bank’s final dividend did not pass.

“The Commercial Bank had notified us on their ‘XD date’, which is the cut off date for the final divided entitled to the bank’s shareholders as 31st March, which was a Monday. But they did not inform the CSE that the AGM adjourned without the final divided resolution being approval by the shareholders,” a CSE official explained.

He said the XD date is the next market day following the AGM. “The CSE was not notified that the final dividend was not passed and CSE allowed Commercial Bank shares to trade. “However, we had to suspend their trading for a few hours on Monday till they sent a disclosure saying the AGM was adjourned, which they did and then we let the shares trade,” he added.

He said the new XD date is tomorrow, as the Commercial Bank had the AGM on Friday. “The date of dividend payment is Apri 14, which is five market days after the AGM; excluding the day the dividend was announced,” he added.