Sunday, December 13, 2009

SRI LANKA - GALLEON EXITS FROM MANY LISTED COMPANIES IN COLOMBO STOCK MARKET

Billionaire investor Raj Rajaratnam who held shares in 73 listed companies in Sri Lanka through his Galleon Funds has completed disposing these holdings in all but two of these companies with Galleon now holding shares only in Touchwood Investments and the People’s Merchant Bank, sources familiar with the account said yesterday.

Rajaratnam however continues to hold his personal stake in the John Keells Holdings conglomerate where he is the second largest shareholder with 8% of the blue chip amounting to nearly 44 million shares.
The word in the Colombo market is that he will not divest his personal holding of JKH from which Galleon exited before Rajaratnam’s problems with the US authorities surfaced.
Some big disposals of Galleon, handled by Capital Trust Securities (Pvt.) Ltd., a Colombo brokerage in which Rajaratnam is a part owner, included , four million NDB, four million Commercial Bank, 3.7 million Ceylon Leather Products (29.9%), five million CIC and 10.6 million DFCC.
Broking sources said this brokerage, which found approximately 90 percent of the buying for the recent Galleon disposals, has handled some of the biggest transaction recently concluded on the CSE.
Well informed sources said that Rajaratnam who held the dominant stake in Galleon expects to complete liquidating that fund by year end with an estimated USD 800 million of his personal wealth released by Galleon’s divestments. This money is likely to be invested in stock markets in various parts of the world.
These sources said that the billionaire investor is confident of overcoming his problems in the context of a credible defence that is being mounted with resources for this purpose not necessitating disposal of his personal stakes here or elsewhere.

source -www.island.lk

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