We refer to the letter written by A. R. Ismail, Karachi on the subject, which was published by your newspaper on 18th March 2004.
As a shareholder of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited he has expressed his concern over the non-declaration of interim dividends.
We would like to clarify that this was based on the decision of the Board of Directors, which is appointed by the shareholders themselves.
Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited has no past tradition of paying interim dividend as a result of a payment of this type of dividend.
The liquidity of the company necessitates additional borrowings, which also brings down the profits for the next six months.
Moreover, the payment of an interim dividend reduces the value of the shares in stock market, which is undesirable for the company as well as the shareholders.
Our shareholders and readers would appreciate that in view of the improvement in our performance in the stock market during last one-year, the market price of the company share has improved and on 1st April, 2004 it traded at Rs 63.85.
The shareholders must, therefore, feel happy with the capital appreciation of their investment. Logically the appreciation in share value is comparatively better than the interim dividend.
We hope that this clarification would remove any misgivings or misunderstandings of any shareholder on this score.
(Chief Officer (Pr), Sui Northern Gas)
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