Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Silver lining for Dankotuwa

 Dankotuwa Porcelain PLC, the reputed porcelain/tableware manufacturing company in Sri Lanka, entered into a strategic partnership with a consortium comprising Sri Lanka's premier investment holding company - Environmental Resources Investment PLC (ERI) and Ceylon Leather Products Ltd (CLP) - with the issue of 48 million plus shares at Rs. 9 per share in a private placement.

The placement will infuse a staggering Rs. 433.5 million of fresh capital into Dankotuwa Porcelain, which will be utilised to restructure and expand its operations. Accordingly, ERI will hold 42 million plus shares and CLP six million plus shares, reflecting 58.36% and 8.31% respectively of the issued ordinary shares of Dankotuwa Porcelain PLC.

Dankotuwa Porcelain manufactures and sells high quality tableware with over 85% of its production being exported all over the world with the main export markets being USA and Europe. Dankotuwa Porcelain's product quality is recognised as being amongst the best in the world due to many superior characteristics of its body - such as very high whiteness, high translucency, high resistance to chipping and scratching, and also because of the high quality of its adornments.

Dankotuwa Porcelain products can be found in many top department stores in the world including Macy's of USA, Bhs of UK, El Corte Ingles of Spain, Migres of Switzerland, Isetan of Japan and Jashanmal of Dubai.

"The company was facing a challenging and turbulent period due to financial and labor issues and we are very glad that ERI & Ceylon Leather both decided to assist us in our time of need," said Sunil Wijesinha, Chairman and Managing Director of Dankotuwa Porcelain PLC.

"The fresh capital infusion from the ERI/CLP consortium has come just in time - as only a short while ago the company was considering liquidation. We are confident that with the assistance of ERI and its consortium, they will help our company to not only overcome these issues, but we will be able to expand our operations and fortify our position as a leading global manufacturer and exporter of high quality tableware/lifestyle products," he continued.

Dankotuwa Porcelain employs over 1,000 people who are experienced and highly skilled, and considered as experts in the field of porcelain. The company has won many accolades, both local and foreign, for its excellent quality lifestyle/tableware products.

ERI's investment in Dankotuwa follows on the heels of their investment and successful turnaround of Ceylon Leather Products PLC. ERI strives to be a socially responsible business entity which firmly believes in the positive and far-reaching effects of good governance policies. ERI provides financial management, strategic guidance and strong management discipline to help restructure companies.

"We will use ERI's plan for Ceylon Leather's restructuring. One main point we really value is ERI's mindset of not retrenching our staff, as our work force is a main factor for Dankotuwa producing such high quality products," Wijesinha further added.

"We are very pleased to be able to add such a well regarded and internationally-recognised brand into our portfolio," said G.S. Munasingha, Director, ERI. "We like the synergies Dankotuwa has with our existing companies and we are also quite excited about their future prospects," he continued.

source - www.dailymirror.lk

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