The National Industrial & Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) on Tuesday announced that it placed its $6,099,927 equity shares in Guyana Stock Feeds Incorporated on the local stock market.

The placement of the shares on the stock market comes after previous attempts to dispose of the shares failed. The current majority shareholder, Robert Badal, was the only person to make an offer for the shares held by NICIL when they were advertised for sale.
The placement on the local stock exchange also signals a shift in strategy by NICIL, and an effort to widen shareholding by providing more opportunities for the Guyanese public to participate in investments in public companies. NICIL believes that the placement of these shares on the local market will greatly contribute to the depth, diversification and enrichment of the local stock market coupled with the copious potential investments gains to the general public which is likely to ensue.

Acting CEO of NICIL, Colvin Heath-London, said that “NICIL is enthusiastic about public participation in the local stock market and intends to give every Guyanese an opportunity to grow their money, maximise their returns and have a legitimate chance to acquire state assets that are being diversified,” a release from the entity quoted him as saying.

There are many families which have owned shares in companies like Demerara Distillers Limited and Banks DIH for generations after parent or grandparents bought shares decades ago. However, for many decades new opportunities were not provided for the same type of stock ownership and transfer of wealth from one generation to the other.

As many developed societies are beginning to teach entrepreneurship to children, this is an opportunity as well for parents to set up stock accounts with their children, just like they set up bank accounts, so that children learn to develop a diverse portfolio of savings, stock and other investment instruments as they grow.

Heath-London added that “we at NICIL would also like to invigorate the local stock market by given it depth and robustness that will be attractive to global companies. One of the benefits of the boom in oil and gas should be that global companies that come here to operate see a vibrant market for stocks and get listed on our exchange. Such cross-listing with our local exchange would open up opportunities for Guyanese to invest in these companies and benefit from their profitability.”

Since the NICIL shares in Guyana Stockfeeds Limited surfaced in the public domain recently there has been vigorous discussion of the value of the shares versus the value of the offer made by the majority shareholder. NICIL is of the view that ultimately, now that the shares have been placed on the stock exchange, the market will eventually determine the true value of the shares.