AMMAN: It is customary for different kinds of businesses to become public shareholding companies, but Al-Ekbal Printing & Packaging Co. is the first Jordanian entity seeking the other way.
As unanimously approved by shareholders during a recent extraordinary general assembly meeting, Al-Ekbal is now awaiting a government decision regarding its request to delist from the Amman Stock Exchange and become a limited liability company.
According to a knowledgeable source at the company, Al-Ekbal submitted all the documents required for the shift in legal status along with supportive justification to the authorities concerned. “We are now waiting for a government ‘yes or no’ answer to our demand,” the source said, adding that the authorities need not justify their decision. He would not predict the outcome.
Legal government officials’ deliberations, conducted carefully and in confidentiality, may take some time because the decision could be a precedent that others may choose to copy. Al-Ekbal, whose plant in Amman’s Naur suburb employs 123 workers, is the first company requesting to shift from a public shareholding to a limited liability status, according to the source.
Asked to elaborate on the motives behind seeking a limited liability company status, he mentioned ownership, share trading, financial costs, openness and extensive exposure of dealings that do not apply to competitors in the same line of business. He explained that because the investors in the company were primarily Mayr-Meinhof Packaging International Gmbh (34.6 per cent), Mayr-Meinhof Packaging Austria (29.5 per cent) and Neupack Gesellschaft (20 per cent), the number of shareholders was limited and, as such, the share trading on Amman Bourse was occasional.
