Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka (MBSL) Chairman Janaka Ratnayake, complying with a Central Bank advice, has divested his personal 46.35% stake in Ceylinco Investment Co. Ltd. (CICL), the major shareholder of The Finance Company PLC (TFC), a pillar of the Ceylinco Group, Central Bank sources indicated.
These sources said that MBSL had taken Ratnayake’s shares in CICL which is the biggest shareholder of TFC, the country’s longest established finance company, which is now under MBSL management.
CICL owned 37.14% of TFC which has long been quoted on the Colombo Stock Exchange and was one of the strongest members of the Ceylinco Group until the Golden Key issue exploded. TFC too, like other group companies, was caught-up in the after shock of the Golden Key collapse.
Ratnayake’s interest in CICL was made public in a stock exchange disclosures made by MBSL last October that it was investing Rs. 5 million to increase its stake in CICL to 46.35%, the same proportion of that company personally held by its chairman.
Both TFC and MBSL are listed companies.MBSL is a subsidiary of the Bank of Ceylon.
MBSL has bought Ceylinco Savings Bank, and also took over Ceylinco Sussex College, a school which it said owed 2.7 billion rupees to TFC, and is also involved in several other Ceylinco firms.
The TFC announcement to the CSE indicated that its five major shareholders as at Sept. 30, 2009 were Ceylinco Investment Company Limited (CICL) - 6,670,230 (37.13%), Pershing LLC S/A Averbach Grauson & Co - 1,498,500 (8.34%), Ceylinco Insurance PLC - 579,178 (3.22%) and Mr. J L B Kotelawala - 526,427 (2.93%).
source - www.island.lk
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