Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange announces postponement of listed companies’ AGMs over Covid-19 fears

Dar es Salaam. Shareholders for companies that are listed at the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) will have to wait longer before they receive their dividends following a decision to push back all annual general meetings (AGMs).  

Basically, most listed companies hold their AMGs between March and May where shareholders approve, among others, the right amount that must be paid as dividends to shareholders.

But with coronavirus - which cases Covid-19 - becoming the most popular topic globally, the DSE management issued a public notice on Monday, March 30, 2020, advising listed companies to shelve their planned AGMs until further notice.

Mass gatherings are currently prohibited as the government takes measures to contain further spread of coronavirus in the country. So far, official figures put the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Tanzania at 14.

In its March 30, 2020, public notice, the DSE management said the move was in the line with the government’s directives that prohibits mass gathering.

“DSE requests all listed companies and licensed persons with scheduled Annual General Meetings (AGMs) to defer their meetings into later dates,” said a public notice posted on DSE website.

“Companies are also hereby advised to ensure all affected stakeholders are notified on goodtime.”

Prior to the notice, some individual companies had already informed their shareholders over the suspension of the AGM.

This is being announced when some of the listed companies, including Tanzania Tea Packaging Limited (Tatepa) and Tanzania Cigarette Company (TCC) have already published their annual reports, while Swissport has issued a profit warning for the year ending in December 2019.

Tanzania has 22 locally-listed companies of which, according to the capital markets laws and regulations, were supposed to hold their AGMs.