Hum Network states reasonable grounds behind undue movement in its share price

August 11, 2020 (MLN): Hum Network Limited (HUMNL), in a notice issued to PSX, has explained the undue movement in its share price, wherein it increased from Rs. 2.31 per share to Rs. 17.05 per share during the period starting from April 03, 2020 to June 18, 2020.

The explanation comes against the backdrop of certain news articles doing the rounds, speculating that Kingsway Capital and Mr. Jahangir Siddiqui and JS Group Companies may be increasing their shareholding in HUMNL to takeover control of the company at the forthcoming elections of the company.

The company clarified that there were reasonable grounds (mentioned below) for concluding that it is the potential acquirers’ actions which has led to this situation.

During commencing second half of April 2020 to first week of May 2020, a private limited company namely, Airkenstuart Pakistan (Private) Limited (APPL), i.e. a 100% owned subsidiary of OBS Healthcare (Pvt) Limited, started acquiring and accumulating shares of HUMNL.

APPL acquired at least 83,462,000 shares of the company, which constitutes 8.83% of the total issued capital of Hum TV. The aforesaid number of shares is based on the NDM transaction and it is possible that APPL may have purchased or sold more shares in the open market, information of which is not available to HUMNL.

APPL during the period commencing from May 20, 2020 to June 8, 2020 sold shares of HUMNL to JS Bank Limited (79,030,303 shares), Jahangir Siddiqui & Sons Limited (3,375,197 shares) and Mr. Munaf Ibrahim (1,056,500 shares).

Munaf Ibrahim, who also had been a longtime employee of JS Group and served in various capacities, transferred 16,500,000 shares of HUMNL to Kingsway Capital on June 3, 2020.

As of June 30, 2020, the collective shareholding of the aforesaid persons was more than 33% of the total issued capital of HUMNL.

The company also stated that the significant increase in price per share as well as volume was not prompted or accompanied by any significant change in fundamentals underlying the valuation of price of a share of the company or any market dynamics.

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