George Steuart announces voluntary offer to buy HVA Foods shares

By Hiran H.Senewiratne 

George Steuart announced a voluntary offer to purchase all the shares of HVA Foods PLC  from its major shareholder HVA Lanka Export (Pvt) Limited at a share price of Rs. 3.50. The major shareholder company holds 61.1 percent and they are planning to divest 51.1 percent, which is equal to 40.6 million shares to the  buyer, stock market analysts said.

 However, yesterday an HVA share traded at Rs. 6.60. With the per share offer George Steuart will be enjoying an approximately 47 percent discount for the voluntary offer, stock market analysts said. 

HVA Foods Plc is engaged in the processing, packing and export of teas. The company is also engaged in the development, manufacture and distribution of tea extract-based products, contract packing of teas and franchise operations of tea cafes.

CSE began the last month of 2020 on a positive note with healthy turnover sustaining the momentum seen in November. Therefore, the market was positive and almost all the shares of companies marginally gained yesterday, market analysts said. 

It said high net worth and institutional investor participation was noted in Aitken Spence, JKH  and Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka. Mixed interest was observed in Commercial Bank, Tokyo Cement Company non-voting and Browns Investments, while retail interest was noted in ACL Cables, Expolanka Holdings and Melstacorp.

Amid those developments both indices moved upwards. All Share Price Index was up by 28.38 points and S and P SL20 up by 14.35 points. The turnover stood at Rs. 2.26 billion with three crossings. Those crossings were reported in Ambeon Holdings (formally known as Greg) crossed five million shares to the tune of Rs. 97.5 million and its share traded at Rs. 19.50, Seylan Bank one million shares crossed for Rs. 45 million and its share traded at Rs. 45  and Distilleries 1.46 million shares crossed for Rs. 31 million and its share traded at Rs. 21.30.

In the retail market top five companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were Expolanka Rs. 177 million (6.6 million shares traded), JKH Rs. 166.5 million (12 million shares traded), Melstacorp Rs. 106.5 million (2.5 million shares traded), Browns Investment Rs. 98.6 million (37.5 million shares traded) and Royal Ceramic Rs. 70.7 million (450,000 shares traded). During the day 111.5 million share volumes changed hands in 22037 transactions        

Sri Lanka rupee was quoted at 186.20/50 to the US dollar in the one-month-forwards on Wednesday while gilt yields remained unchanged in the overall market, dealers said. The rupee closed at 186.00/30 in the spot next to the US dollar on Monday.