RIYADH, 26 April — The Ministry of Commerce has denied any responsibility for blocking distribution of dividends by Saudi Pharmaceutical Industries Company (Al-Dawaiyah).
A ministry official pinpointed the cause as a series of disagreements that broke out at the company’s general assembly meeting earlier this month. The issue is to be dealt with by the company administration.
The ministry is not connected in any way with the freezing of the payment of dividends, the official continued.
The board of directors of the pharmaceutical company had earlier recommended disbursement of SR60,000 dividend to shareholders for the last financial year ending on April 4, but objections raised in the general assembly meeting blocked the adoption of the recommendation. Consequently the company issued on April 12 a letter to the concerned bank to stop the payment of dividends until further notification.
The agenda of the general assembly meeting included the controversial election of the new board of directors.
A group of shareholders demanded that the Commerce Ministry endorse the voting results and requested a meeting with Minister Osama Faqeeh for further discussions.
Ibrahim Mansour Al-Rajhi, Abdul Kareem Al-Rajhi, Omar Al-Omar and Amr Faouq Murad told Arab News that they requested a meeting with the minister to find out what stood in the way of implementing the election results.
Several other share holders also expressed their displeasure at the suspension of the dividend payment with no apparent reason.
