Dear Editor,
Over the past year, the Chairman of Banks DIH has repeatedly suggested that the stock market is depressing the value of the bank’s shares. That claim is difficult to reconcile with the proposal now before shareholders to cap ownership at 15%.
Markets do not set prices arbitrarily; they reflect demand, liquidity, confidence and governance. Share values reflect demand, liquidity, investor confidence, and corporate governance. When a stock is undervalued, the causes lie in these fundamentals not in the existence of the exchange itself.
This creates a startling contradiction. If management believes the shares are undervalued, the logical response would be to encourage participation, liquidity and investor confidence. Instead, the proposed ownership cap does the opposite: it restricts demand, limits liquidity and suppresses price discovery.
One cannot argue that the market is suppressing value while simultaneously imposing rules that guarantee it remains constrained.
Ownership caps do not create value; they protect control. They do not remedy market discounts; but rather, they serve to entrench them. At a time when Guyana’s capital market needs openness and confidence, such mixed signals only deepen investor hesitancy (or uncertainty). The fundamental question shareholders must consider is this: Is this proposal intended to unlock value, or to prevent outcomes the market itself might freely choose?