HNB goes for debenture issue to raise Rs. 700 million, focusing on expansion

By Hiran H.Senewiratne 

HNB will go for a debenture issue to raise Rs. 700 million for their future expansions. The bank’s Board of Directors last week resolved to issue 50 million Basel III compliant Tier 2, listed, rated, unsecured, subordinated, redeemable 10-year debentures with a non-viability conversion feature at Rs. 100 each with an option to issue a further 20 million debentures in the event of an over-subscription of the original amount. The move, however, is subject to market conditions and obtaining all necessary regulatory and shareholder approval.

Meanwhile,  Seylan Bank PLC Board of Directors has decided to put off its Basel III compliant debenture issue despite shareholders approving the same. Seylan said the decision to postpone it for the first half of 2021 was after taking into consideration the prevailing market conditions. 

“The Board decided to review the market conditions during the first quarter in 2021 and consider the timing of proceeding with the issue, subject to receiving the approval of the CSE on the listing of the debentures, Seylan Bank said in a filing to the CSE. The Basel III compliant debenture was approved by shareholders at an EGM on November 4.

Further, Kahawatte Plantations  will go for a private placement in the future to convert their Rs. 800 million debt to equity. The company has borrowed funds from its parent company MJF (Pvt) Limited. Under this they will create 19.5 million new shares/debentures, which will be sold at Rs. 41 each, stock market analysts said. 

Amid those developments CSE activities were positive and there was a significant price appreciation in manufacturing and diversifying holding companies during the day. The stock market also adjusted to the Fitch Rating downgrading and also the Moodys downgrading as well. Therefore, both indices moved upwards, i.e., the All Share Price Index went up by 62.90 points and S and P SL20 went up by 43.75 points. The turnover stood at Rs. 2.41 billion sans a crossing.

In the retail market top five companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were, Expolanka Rs. 328.2 million (12.1 million shares traded), Royal Ceramic Rs. 207.5 million (1.4 million shares traded), Melstacorp Rs. 172.7 million (4.2 million shares traded), JKH Rs. 131 million (883,000 shares traded) and Dipped Products Rs. 118.4 million (360,000 shares traded), During the day, 82.8 million share volumes changed hands in 22168 transactions.

 Sri Lanka rupee was quoted at 185.30/70 to the US dollar in the spot market on Monday, while gilt yields remained unchanged in the overall market, dealers said. The rupee closed at 184.90/185.20 to the US dollar on Friday.