CSE News Updates

Debutantes Lanka Orix Finance and Vallibel made their first appearance on the market on Thursday and Friday respectively helping drive retail activity in an otherwise lackluster week in the market. Lanka Orix Finance was introduced at a notional price of Rs 5.00, but the stock opened at Rs 15.00 and shot up all the way to Rs 22.00 but finally ended the week at Rs 10.60. Vallibel One had a successful IPO at Rs 25.00 per share and opened trading at Rs 38.00, but finally finished the week at Rs 30.70. Both companies were admitted the secondary board of the market.
On Thursday, Textured Jersey closed its IPO a few hours after officially opening.  The Textured Jersey IPO was for 80 million shares at Rs 15.00 per share. The company is a joint venture between Hong Kong listed Pacific Textiles and local apparel giant Phoenix Ventures. The latter has one other company listed on the CSE, namely Kuruwita Textiles, the parent company and its apparel manufacturing subsidiary Brandix Lanka are both private companies. Though one of the largest employers and exporters in the country, the apparel industry has very few listed companies, with the others being Hayleys MGT and Orient Lanka.
Good Hope Asia Holdings, the Singapore registered subsidiary of Carson Cumberbatch and Co, announced the purchase of three companies from the Premium Nutrients Group of Companies of Malaysia. The purchase consideration of Rs 4.3 billion was paid for Premium Vegetable Oils Sdn Bhd, Premuim Fats Sdn Bhd, and Arani Agro Oil Industries. Premium Nutrients is one of the largest players in the field of edible oils, manufacturing for the global confectionary business. Premium Vegetable and Premuim Fats manufacture a range of products that are used as margarines, salad dressings, special shortenings, coco butter substitutes, creaming and coating fats and other fat blends. Arani Agro is an Indian based company with its factory in Andhra Pradesh and marketing operations in Hyderabad.
According a joint press release by Carson’s and its parent company Bukit , the acquired businesses have a combined turnover of Rs 29 billion while its net asset base is Rs 2.5 billion. The companies have assets of Rs 12.1 billion and debt of Rs 9.6 billion. The statement did not touch on profitability of the acquired companies. Carson’s closed the week at Rs 590.00, while Bukit closed at Rs 1,055.00. Good Hope Asia Holdings was formed in 2008 to be the holding company of Carson’s Palm Oil plantation holdings in Malaysia and Indonesia. Bukit and Carson’s are controlled by Sri Lanka entrepreneurs Hariharan and Manoharan Selvanathan.
The week ended saw the All Share Index gain 67 points or 1% to close at 6,912. The more liquid Milanka Index gained 43 points or 0.7% to close at 6,387. The total number of listed companies at the CSE now stands at 261 while market capitalisation stands at 2,359 billion.
- By Stock Market Correspondent