Walton share soars on debut, close up 150 pc, compared with the cut-off price  

Trading of Walton Hi-Tech Industries share in the two stock exchanges in Dhaka and Chittagong was started on Wednesday.

On Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), Walton Hi-Tech’s each share opened at the IPO price of Tk 252 and closed at Tk 378, a 150 pc close up compared with the IPO price.

On Wednesday morning, the trading of Walton share was commenced through cutting a giant cake at the DSE office in the capital

DSE Managing Director Kazi Sanaul Hoq said, Walton’s listing in the capital market is a milestone. Walton will play a guiding role in the U-turn of the capital market from bad to good. He expected that Walton will do better than the multinational companies listed in the country’s capital market.

Earlier in the morning, the trading of Walton shares began at 10.00 am on Wednesday (23 September 2020). Prior to that, an agreement was signed between Walton and DSE. S M Ashraful Alam, Managing Director of Walton Hi-Tech Industries Limited and Chief Regulatory Officer Abdul Latif signed the agreement papers on behalf of their respective organizations.

DSE Managing Director Kazi Sanaul Hoq, CFO Abdul Matin Patwary, Walton Hi-Tech Industries Limited Chairman S M Nurul Alam Rezvi, Director S M Mahbubul Alam, Additional Managing Director Golam Murshed, CFO Abul Bashar Howlader, Deputy Managing Director Nazrul Islam Sarker and Eva Rezwana, Executive Director Humayun Kabir and Uday Hakim, Company Secretary Partha Protim Das, AAA Chairman Arif Ahmed, Managing Director Obaydur Rahman, Prime Bank Investment CFO Khandokar Raihan, Satcom IT ltd. vice-chairman Swadesh Ranjan Saha were among others present on the occasion.

Meanwhile, The trading of Walton shares started at the Dhaka office of Chittagong Stock Exchange. Walton Hi-Tech Industries Limited MD and CSE DGM Hasnain Bari inaugurated the trading activities by cutting cakes and ringing bells. Among others present at the time were CSE Deputy Managers Parveen Akhter, Rahi Iftekhar Reza and Masuda Begum.

According to the BSEC order, on the first trading session, a 50 percent circuit breaker will be imposed on the issue price of the debutant company’s shares. On the second trading session, the circuit breaker of percent will be imposed on the reference price or first day’s closing price or on the adjusted open price. Circuit breaker regulation will be as usual, or 10% from the third trading session, adds the order.

S M Ashraful Alam, Managing Director of Walton Hi-Tech Industries Limited said, Walton is marching forward with the target to become a global brand in the international electronics market. The general investors of the country have joined the advancement of the journey of Walton family. They are not mere shareholders, but the partner of Walton’s future progress and achievement of the target. Therefore, the advice of shareholders will be given importance. He assured that Walton maintain transparency in every aspect of its accounts and financial information and this practice will continue.

The subscription of Walton Hit-Tech’s (Initial Public Offering) was started on August 9 and continued till August 16. During its IPO subscription, Walton hi-tech received the application for Tk 374.43 crore worth general shares’ allotment,  which was 9.59 times higher than its approved allotment of Tk 39.3 crore worth general shares.

In this context, the local electronics giant allotted shares to the investors through the IPO lottery process on September 6 last.

On September 20, Walton Hi-Tech deposited the allotted shares to the respective investors’ BO accounts through the Central Depository Bangladesh Limited.

In the 729^th commission meeting on June 23 last, Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) given the final approval to Walton Hi-Tech Industries for raising Tk 100 crore fund in capital from the stock market by issuing 2.93 million ordinary shares through the IPO process under the book building method.

Following the Dutch method for the first time in the country’s capital market, the cut-off price per share of Walton was set at Tk 315 with the proposed rates of the eligible investors during the bidding of price discovery of Walton’s share from to 5 March this year.

As per the BSEC approval, Walton issued issued 1.38 million shares to the eligible investors at the cut-off price of Tk 315 or above each, which were proposed by them for the company’s each share during the country’s first-ever electronic bidding process.

Through the IPO lottery, Walton allotted 1.55 million shares to the general investors at Tk 252 each, a 20 per cent discount on cut-off price, as the company gave 10 per cent additional discount considering the interest of the capital market and small investors.

The IPO proceeds will be utilised for expansion of its businesses, repay bank loans and meeting the IPO related expenses. AAA Finance is in charge of issue manager of the company.

As per the company’s financial statement as of June 30 of 2019, WHIL’s Net Assets Value (NAV) with revaluation reserve per share was recorded at Tk 243.16 and its Earnings Per Share (EPS) was Tk 45.87.

It was known that Walton Hi-Tech is going to be listed in capital market with ever highest EPS recorded during the IPO.