HEADLINES

Worldcall reannounces takeover by ARY Digital Network

Share price of WTL increases 41pc within 24 hours after the announcement

By Syeda Masooma

ISLAMABAD: Worldcall Telecom Limited (WTL) on Friday filed disclosure with the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), informing about the “Substantial Acquisition of Voting Shares and Takeovers”.

The letter revealed the intention of ARY Communications Limited and ARY Digital FZ LLC to acquire 51pc shares of WTL, with AKD Securities as the manager to the offer.

AKD Securities issued a similar letter of disclosure on Wednesday (Aug 6).

Following the announcement, WTL’s share price witnessed an increase of 41.58pc (from Rs1.01 on Tuesday to Rs1.43 on Wednesday). Trading volumes also surged from 13,091,000 shares to 242,817,000 shares.

The total number of issued ordinary shares by the company as of August 5, 2020, was 2,458,753,891, or approximately 2.5 billion. Trading of 242 million shares shows that approximately 10pc of the company’s shares changed hands in a single day.

Yesterday, the stock market passed the 40,000-mark as the trading volume increased 65pc (highest of the year), a bulk of which was attributable to the penny stock WTL.

However, this is not the first time Worldcall has made an acquisition announcement and witnessed stock price increase because of that. On October 30, 2019 – back then with Shajar Capital as the manager of the acquisition – Worldcall announced its takeover, with the intention to disclose the takeover information on November 1, 2019. But as per PSX data, the announcement was made on October 31, 2019, and the next trading week saw a price upshoot from Rs1.22 to Rs1.70.

Whether this second announcement, this time with AKD Securities, will lead to an actual change of ownership or will it be just another intimation of a takeover is for time to tell.

In a recent interview with Profit, ARY Digital Network CEO Salman Iqbal had said, “We’re still very interested in WorldCall. I think it’s a good company, but it’s dying, and that is the kind of challenge I like. It’s the age of media, and we’re looking to acquire majority shareholding into the company.”

As for a timeline on the deal, Iqbal optimistically chirped, “You’ll hear from the PSX very soon. It’s happening. We’re going through with it.”

Another interesting nugget of information about WTL is that 39.98pc of its shares are owned by Worldcall Services Private Limited that has Syed Babar Ali on its board of directors (along with Muhammad Azhar Saeed and Muhammad Murtaza Raza). He was also on the board of directors of the company at the time of the previous announcement but now that position seems to have been taken by his daughter Hina Babar.

This position change is not the only transformation the company went through between these two announcements. From an issued share capital of 1,805,921,917 shares (approximately 1.8 billion), the company went to an issued share capital of 2.5 billion shares (2,458,753,891 to be exact). Similarly, the majority shareholding by Syed Babar Ali’s Worldcall Services Private Limited also increased from approximately 28pc in October 2019 to 40pc in August 2020.

The second majority shareholder in the Worldcall Telecom – Ferret Consulting F.Z.C – reduced its ownership from 17.97pc shares in October 2019 to merely 7.53pc shares in August 2020, while the third majority shareholder – AMB Management Consultations (PVT) limited – almost completely withdrew its investment from 7.51pc shares in 2019 to 0.24pc in 2020. For reference, in numbers, this is a decrease from over 139 million shares to a meagre five million shares.

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Syeda Masooma
Writer is business reporter at Pakistan Today

112 COMMENTS

  2. Dear Team
    Please let me know when ARY will takeover the worldcall, is there any time frame
    Please let me know

    Br. Iram Haider

  4. yes A r y is big group and salman Iqbal can take over WTL company if he is really interested.I hope very soon.
    M.RAFIQ

  9. Deal kitne confirm hai hoge ya nahe an as per your comment it will be done in Feb 2021 if done then what will be the target share price.

  10. when deal confirm A R Y group take over WTL then salman iqbal will inevest 55 $ million for
    development of new projects like I T ,fiber optic ftth ects.

  20. Hey everybody, is any new progress about the transaction? what’s the critical problem impeding the process, is this or about the supervisatory body’s decison？

  28. It’s clear that ARY has purchased wtl .as per pta fined on wtl 10 million due to substantial owner interest change without informing authorities and deuring hearing of court wtl didn’t denied about it so it’s clear ARY has ellegally bought of wtl shares now when public will sell the shares they will announce untill that the bad news regarding wtl will come in markets to snatch shares from public.

  29. Mere pas ek letter aya hai jis may likha hai . Wtl ko defaulter segment may dall day ge agr company ne annual listing fees 2 saal ke paid nhi ki hui or company ke pas time specified march 2021 tak hai .. its that lette is true or fake … i am just verifiyng

  30. Han G – Nov by khatam 2020 Dec b aa gaya
    any news ???
    Jo halat lag rahay hain signs achay nai hain
    but 248Million ki trade ka kuch tu injam hoga – its been over 4 months.
    FTTH ki cables isb may bitchnay shuru ho gai hain, transworld and ptcl nay game utahi howi hay.
    Last i know is that they were fighting over the price. wtl wants 1.9 and salman iqbal is offering 1.3

    Any insight on this will be helpful. And i think even if its announced i dont see it crossing 2.5 -3 Rs

    Major chunk of shares is with AKD. but he is not moving on it as well. so i dont know what are they cooking

  31. Dear from where we come to know how many shares are holding akd plz let me know any website I searched a lot but failed to find out the quantity of shres holding akd only till Dec.2019 akd is holding 1 million SHARES

  34. hahah 😀
    Bahi — abhi hilna shuru howa tu market ko moat per gai 😀

    dua he issay bacha sakti hay…
    allah khair keray.. if someone has some solid info .. it would be really nice if they can share it here.

  40. Pichlay 4 Din say – Accumulation ho rahi hay.
    i dont think deal is canceled.
    As of yet. 6-14 million shares traded daily in the last 5 days.
    It could be a new start or the last breath before expiring 😀
    As of now someone is very bullish… it could be someone from this thread as well…

    No news otherwise –

  41. Its almost 100% confirm that the Deal expected to be done within 1st or 2nd week of Jan 2021 that is why we are witnessing daily 10 million + volume in WTL

  42. @khizer khan
    Any particular reason why 1st and 2nd week of jan why not end of feb or starting of june ?

    would appreciate if you can tell how u came up with the time line ? scroll up augest say log kay rahay hain kay bus kal!!!!

  43. Meri reliability pori market achi tarah jaanti hay ke meri news kitni pakki hoti hay aap khud dekh lena Jan ke end tak news aa kar rahegi

  44. @Khizer Khan
    Bahi jan – Reliability tu issi say pata chal rahi hay kay aik sawal per app nay time line 2 weeks aur agay ker di 😀 1st 2nd week jan say end Jan.

    But my question is not this, i am just asking a simple question. You got this info from the Office, some one working with AKD, or WTL or Mubashar Luqman. I see you have been copying all the text from here and pasting it on FB.

    To be honest, i really dont care kay app copy ker rahay hain kay nai. But i am more interested in that if you have anything other then whats written here and your own credibility. Please share for the greater good – sub ka bhala hoga. Shukria.

  47. One of my close contact has confirmed that contract between ARY and WorldCall has been signed by Salman Iqbal this Tuesday.

    They are just strategically deciding the time of announcement to avoid creditors and other nuisance.

    My contact was of the view that the deal should be public within January 2021 and first week of January can be important.

    They will first give the feel of the contract 2 days before the announcement after buying in bulk in the late hours.

    Next day rate will be increased and in the afternoon some photocopy sort of intro will be partially shared.

    The next day would be Submitting to SECP.

    We should expect crossing 3 after the day of announcement.

  49. 1. Investment under the umbrella of CPEC ,chinese are interested in companies like WTL with old infrastructure already available in the country and they consider that have the potential to grow exponentially with inflow of liquidity.
    2. Where ever there is smoke , there is fire if we observe closely penny stocks like ICIBL , PACE and FDIBL had a good run in December.
    3. Its just a personal opinion that in next band wagon WTL can hit the mark of Rs 2

  50. Meray khyaal mein AKD bhai maal ikathaaa kar raha hai , achanak se surprise milega .Market mein 3 ki awaaz hai

  51. @khizer khan .
    Koi pakki khabbar hai tau btaao ICIBL ki tarhaan .is rate pe buying banti hai ? Hold kar sakta hoon 6 months

    • May ne 1 pay buying call di hoyi hay jab ye 1 pay trade ho raha tha ab 1 pay wapis aata nazar nahi aata but agr 1.10 bhi laga dey to buy kar ke hold kar lain In Sha Allah 50% return guaranteed hay 6 months mein

  53. Tofaan aanay hi wala hay last time bhi 2 din pehle tofaan start howa tha abhi bhi wohi chaal hay it means isi week kuch honay wala hay WTL mein

  54. buy calls aa chuki hain, brokerages may – i am getting calls to be ready 😀
    lagta hay kay ya tu purana mal chipkaya jai ga ya phir news ai gi 😀

  57. 5 Million ke buyers aaj aisay hi nahi kharay thay WTL mein 1.22 se 1.23 mein. Bas kuch hi dino ki baat hay phir WTL Rocket

    • I think there is some juice is what Khizer is saying : the trend is very bullish. Even when market is correcting – its holding its 1.23Rs mark. First jhatka should make it cross 2 when most of the selling will happen. Question is should u sell at 2 or 3 😀

  58. Kal 1.22 pay 4 million ke buyers thay aaj 1.25 pay 4 million ke buyers hain and total abhi tak sirf 3.9 million shares ka kaam howa hay so that means everyone is holding WTL they know very well ke news bas boht kareeb hay isi month mein kabhi bhi aa jayegi and wohi ICIBL wala haal hoga jis tarah uski news aayi to Upper Cap howa. Mujhey to kal ki feelings aa rahi hain ke kal letetr aa jana hay

    • Waahid senior employee dekhaa ho jo apne company ki taraki nhi dekh sacta … or senior employe shb app apna khi or job apply kr le take app ki company app ke kehne ke mutabiq khattam hone wali hai … time waste mt kre…

  65. I am senior employee of Worldcall Head Office. PEMRA threat ARY to withdraw from this deal or else their license will be cancelled so ARY had no choice left. I have seen withdrawal letter today on CEO table

  66. Jaa ooyee chawal senior employee. PEMRA ne ARY ko tab kyu nh threat kia jab unho ne ARY LAGUNA Project start kia, ya jab apny jewelry firm open ki…..

  68. Major Creditors have approached SECP for winding up of Worldcall today. SECP will soon issue notice for Worldcall liquidation. Worldcall will be delisted any time. Trust me i am not lying.

  71. lol 😀 sub panic create ker rahay hain ..
    kissi ko kuch nai pata 😀
    but aik baat confirm hay
    some one is controlling the price.

  74. Ohhhh logo ki Ajeeb w gareeb batain hen wtl k bare me me bs itna KAHOGA jo dar gaya wo margaya koi b authentic nhe he stock market name he isi ka he apni research Karo logo ki bato pe dhayaan mat do

    • PTA has directed PTCL to suspend WTL services.. One if my friend working in PTCL shares this info on Jan 8, 21.

  75. Worldcall next wednesday 1 say bi down hogaa SCEP kayy suspension notice kayy baad apnaa paisaa bachaao blue chip me invest karoo

  83. why after June 2021 ?
    any reason for that ?
    the 6 month window of the take over will expire in first week of Feb 2021… do you think they will share another letter saying they are still interested.
    Can you share more information instead of spreading panic

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