NITI Aayog convenes the National Convention on Prevention of Maternal, Adolescent and Childhood Obesity

Jun 25, 2021 | Business

NITI Aayog convened the National Convention on Prevention of Maternal, Adolescent and Childhood Obesity under the chairmanship of Dr. V.K. Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog and Co-chairmanship of Dr. R Hemalatha, Director, Nutrition Institute of India.

Presenting the problem, Dr.Rakesh Sarwal, Additional Secretary (Health and Nutrition), NITI Aayog described obesity as a “silent epidemic” .In the National Consultation global experts, representatives from UN bodies, central ministries and national research institutions presented their evidence regarding increasing prevalence of obesity and presented best practices for obesity reduction.

Arjan de Wagt, Chief Nutrition, UNICEF presented evidence onthe increasing burden of over nutrition in India. Professor William Joe, IEG shared valuable data on the current and emerging trends of obesity in certain geographies of India.

Shariqua Yunus, Head of Unit and Programme Officer (Health and Nutrition), WFP emphasized on the need to diversify food-based social safety nets to prevent obesity. Monika Arora, Director of Health Promotion Division, PHFI along with Rachita Gupta, National Professional Officer (Nutrition) WHO deliberated on obesogenic marketing strategies on Indian Television.Global experts Kathryn Backholer, Professor at Deakin University and Tim Lobstein, Policy Director, World Obesity Federation conveyed how obese population is an unhealthy population and the cost of treating obesity, is the cost of junk food marketing.

In the convention, Secretaries of Ministry of AYUSH and Department of Youth Affairs placed their suggestions on promoting healthy behaviour.Senior officers of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Ministry of Women & Child Development, Ministry of Human Resource Development and Ministry of Information & Broadcasting echoed the need for introducing behavioural change and a favourable policy landscape.UNICEF Country representative, YasmineHaque also endorsed the same.

All panellists expressed unanimous need to address this issue on a priority basis, with a resounding emphasis on better mass communication around encouraging physical activity, healthy eating and lifestyle. A need for a whole of government and a whole of society approach was emphasised in tackling the twin challenge of obesity and under. An urgent need for adopting strategies related to fiscal measures, regulating front-of-package labelling, promoting healthy diet, physical activity and lifestyle options emerged as key themes for future deliberations and actions.

In conclusion, Dr. V.K Paul, Member (Health and Nutrition), NITI Aayog called for a multi-sectoral approach targeting the adolescents to promote activity and healthy lifestyle.

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DS /AKJ

(Release ID: 1730258)
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HKC Convenes Special General Meeting on 23 April, 2021 For the Purpose of Considering and approving Privatisation Resolution

Apr 5, 2021 | Business

HKC (Holdings) Limited (“HKC” or the “Company”; stock code: 190) will convene the Court Meeting and the Special General Meeting (“SGM”) at 10:00a.m. and 10:30a.m., respectively, on 23 April 2021, for the purpose of considering and approving the resolution in relation to the proposed Privatisation of the Company.

On 17 January 2021, the Company and Genesis Ventures Limited (“Genesis Ventures” or the “Offeror”) jointly announced that the Offeror requested the Board of the Company (the “Board”) to put forward a proposal (the “Proposal”) to the holders (the “Scheme Shareholders”) of Scheme Shares for the privatisation of the Company by way of a scheme of arrangement (the “Scheme”).

If the Proposal is approved and implemented, all Scheme Shares will be cancelled in exchange for the payment of HK$8.00 (the “Cancellation Price”) for each cancelled Scheme Share.

In addition, the Company resolved to declare the payment to Shareholders of a second interim dividend of 13 HK cents per Share in lieu of a final dividend for the FY2020, which is not conditional on the Proposal having become effective and will not be deducted from the Cancellation Price.

The independent financial adviser, Anglo Chinese Corporate Finance, Limited, considers the terms of the Proposal to be fair and reasonable as far as the Disinterested Scheme Shareholders(Scheme Shareholders other than the Offeror Concert Parties) are concerned, and it advised the Independent Board Committee to recommend to Shareholders, Scheme Shareholders, or Disinterested Scheme Shareholders, where applicable, to vote in favour of the relevant resolutions to approve the Proposal and the Scheme.

In making the recommendation, the independent financial adviser has considered that: (i) The cancellation price represents a premium ranging from approximately 79.0% to 122.2% over the closing prices of the Shares on the Last Trading Date (12 Jan, 2021), and over the last 5, 30, 60 and 180 trading days up to the Last Trading Date. This is an unusually high premium over the traded market price for privatisation proposals for companies listed in Hong Kong. It is also higher than the price of the Shares as traded over the past five years. (ii) The Share price has been partly supported by Share buybacks by the Company from September 2019 to July 2020, with the number of Shares being bought-back contributing up to approximately 62.7% of the trading volume during this period. The last Share buyback undertaken by the Company was on 3 July 2020 when the Share price closed at HK$4.87, and since then, the Share price has dropped gradually and closed at HK$3.63 on the Last Trading Date. With a margin of only 0.24% above the minimum public float requirement, it is unlikely for the Company to be able to undertake any significant additional Share buyback or the Offeror and its concert parties to conduct any significant Share acquisitions under the current shareholding structure. (iii) Since 2019 up to the Last Trading Date, the average daily trading volume of the Shares has been thin in general, taking into consideration the Share buybacks, and it is difficult for Shareholders to dispose of a significant number of Shares in the open market without causing an adverse impact on the market price level of the Shares. (iv) The future prospects for the Group’s properties is uncertain given oversupply of commercial properties in Shanghai and the recent government policies to control property prices and to reduce the leverage of property developers. (v) Payment of the cancellation price of HK$8.00 per Share in cash, as well as the second interim dividend of HK$0.13 per Share, gives the Scheme Shareholders flexibility to redeploy capital invested in the Company into other investments that they consider more attractive.

Assuming that all of the conditions are fulfilled or waived, the Scheme will become effective on 18 May 2021 (Bermuda time) and the listing of the Shares on the Stock Exchange will be withdrawn at 4:00p.m. on 20 May 2021. Cheques for payment of the cancellation price to Disinterested Scheme Shareholders and cheques for payment of the second interim dividend to Shareholders will be despatched on or before 28 May 2021.


Topic: Press release summary