LOLC Holdings concludes largest non-bank debenture issue worth Rs. 10 billion

By Hiran H.Senewiratne 

LOLC Holdings PLC  concluded the largest non-bank listed debenture issue worth Rs. 10 billion. LOLC issued 75 million listed rated, senior, unsecured, redeemable debentures at Rs. 100 each with an option to offer a further 25 million debentures in the event of over-subscription of the initial amount, stock analysts said.

LOLC said that it received applications for over Rs. 10 billion and the issue was closed the previous day.  The original plan was to raise Rs. 6.5 billion but LOLC increased it to Rs. 10 billion.NDB Investment Bank acted as the managers to the issue and as Joint Placement Agents. The other Placement Agent was People’s Bank Investment Banking Unit.The funds generated from the debenture issue are to be utilised for refinancing short term debt facilities as well as to strengthen the company’s short-term maturity buckets.The proceeds of up to Rs. 7.5 billion raised from the initial issue of debentures will be utilised by the company to re-finance an equal amount of short term/money market borrowings obtained from commercial banks in the country.

Meanwhile, CSE activities yesterday were almost flat and LOLC and Browns Investments dominated and contributed mainly to the All Share Price Index which went up by 61.58 points and S and P SL20 by 10.84 points. Browns Investments contributed 16 points to the All Share Price Index and LOLC contributed more than 11 points to the Index.

The turnover stood at Rs. 3.39 billion with a single crossing, reported in Sampath Bank, which crossed 826,000 shares to the tune of Rs. 131 million, its shares trading at Rs. 159.

In the retail market, top five companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were; Browns Investments Rs. 758 million (127 million shares traded), LOLC Rs. 613 million (1.5 million shares traded), Sampath Bank Rs. 213 million (1.3 million shares traded), JKH Rs. 164 million (one million shares traded) and TJLanka Rs. 157 million (3.6 million shares traded). During the day, 200 million share volumes changed hands in 24787 transactions.  

It is believed that the market has now largely bottomed out and that it provides a good opportunity for investors to be appropriately positioned in fundamentally strong stocks that will outperform over the longer term. “Investors are advised to carefully revisit their portfolios and start exiting from fundamentally weak and non performing counters, while repositioning themselves in quality stocks with strong growth prospects, analysis said.

The Sri Lanka rupee closed at 196.50/197.00 to the US dollar in the one-week forward market on Thursday, while some bond yields edged up, dealers said. The rupee last closed in the spot market at 195.00/198.00 to the dollar on Wednesday.

‘There is no trading in the spot market with heavy moral suasion not to trade above 195 to the US dollar, market participants said.

Sri Lanka has printed a large volume of money, putting pressure on the rupee and triggering balance of payments deficits and downgrades, market sources said.