Friday, February 25, 2011

Union Bank IPO


Sri Lanka bank IPO creates record

Feb 25, 2011 (LBO) - An initial public offer for 375 million rupees of stock in Sri Lanka's Union Bank has drawn record subscriptions of 84 billion rupees or 225 times making it the largest oversubscription ever in the island.
The registrars said 30,100 applications had been received for the issue which closed on Thursday, and from the applications processed so far 3.375 billion shares had been applied for.
The bank only offered 15 million shares to the public.


The previous high was with Singer Finance, a small finance company which attracted subscriptions for 135 times the offer, advisors NDB Investment Bank said.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Softlogic IPO in March


“The country has a high number of small banks and they are unable to provide massive development loans. The banks need to consolidate to support growth and the development process of the country,” Softlogic Holdings Chairman and Managing Director Ashok Pathirage said.

“The corporate sector needs to undertake projects and support the country’s socio economic development. It is important that top banks merge to provide these funding facilities within the country,” Pathirage said.
“We could manage with three to four solid banks considering the country’s size and population. The banking industry has the necessary regulatory framework to move forward. However, merges within the industry will facilitate the huge capital requirement to carry out the development projects,” he said.
The Softlogic Finance company will focus on high performance in keeping with its brand name and reputation. It has a strategic plan in place to achieve Rs 500 million profitability within the next three years.
“This is the level that we are planning to reach in the next few years. We will expand our branch network to widen the reach and will also introduce more finance products to increase our customer base,” Pathirage said.
Softlogic Holdings will go for an IPO in March to raise funds to further build the company.