Imtiaz Buhardeen crosses shareholder threshold

By Hiran H.Senewiratne

High net worth individual investor Imtiaz Buhardeen has increased his stake in Ambeon Holdings PLC to 10 per cent, becoming the second largest shareholder, CSE sources disclosed.

Buhardeen crossed the 10 per cent threshold on Friday when he picked up 4.6 million shares at an average price of Rs. 33.87. Consequently, Buhardeen-owned Almas Organisation Ltd. holds 32.6 million shares and subsidiary Carlines Holdings Ltd. owns a further 3.13 million, bringing the total to Rs. 35.75 million. As of March 31, Buhardeen held a 3.6 per cent stake. Buhardeen has stakes in also Amana Bank, Expolanka Holdings, Laugfs Gas & Power, Malwatte and Kahawatta Plantations, Renuka Holdings, Kalamazoo, Sierra Cables, Kelani Cables, SLT and Singhe Hospitals.

Ambeon Capital holds an 81.4 percent stake in GREG. Ambeon Capital is controlled by CHC Investment of Sanjiv Gardiner and ARRC Capital of Ajit Devasurendra. Ambeon Holdings closed at Rs. 37, up by Rs. 3.20 or 9.5 percent, with 3.6 million shares changing hands via 1,411 trades for Rs. 131.3 million.

Amid those developments, CSE activities were negative yesterday. During the early session the CSE witnessed a bullish run with fresh buying interest for Exoplanka and tile sector companies but in the second session it turned negative due to profit takings and speculation on a country-wide lockdown amid a surge in Covid-19 patients.

Both indices moved downwards. The All Share Price Index went down by 28.2 points and S and SL20 declined by 4.7 points. Turnover stood at Rs. 4.7 billion with two crossings. Those crossings were reported in Commercial Bank, which crossed 750,000 shares to the tune of Rs. 63.3 million, its shares traded at Rs. 84.50 and Royal Ceramic 500,000 shares crossed for 20.5 million, its shares traded at Rs. 41.

In the retail market, the topmost five companies that contributed to the turnover were; Expolanka Rs. 1.46 billion (17.3 million shares traded), Royal Ceramic Rs. 347.9 million (8.6 million shares traded), Ambeon Holdings Rs. 225.2 million (5.5 million shares traded), Lanka Tiles Rs. 176.2 million (2.7 million shares traded) and LOLC Holdings Rs. 166 million (343,000 shares traded). During the day 186.8 million share volumes changed hands in 40000 transactions.