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Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Dr. Senthilverl ups The Finance stake to over 29%

High networth but low profile investor Dr. T. Senthilverl has increased his stake in The Finance Plc (TFC) to slightly over 29% by yesterday.

The closing in to near 30% stake was following the purchase of slightly over 3 million TFC shares amounting to 5% stake yesterday at Rs. 45 each.

Yesterday TFC saw a total of 4.1 million shares changing hands for Rs. 186.3 million. It peaked to a high of Rs. 46.30 before closing at Rs. 43.10; lower by 90 cents from last week’s closing.

Dr. Senthilverl originally picked up a 21.5% stake or 12.5 million shares in TFC during its recent issuance of new shares for Rs. 500 million. Between 22 and 24 February he also picked up nearly 0.6 million shares between a high of Rs. 48.90 and a low of Rs. 45 (0.46 million shares).

After the original investment Dr. Senthilverl was appointed to the Board of TFC in parallel to new set of directors with top business leader and professional Preethi Jayawardena as Chairman.

Dr. Senthilverl’s Rs. 500 million investment was part of Rs. 1.6 billion which TFC raised via the issuance of 40 million new shares at Rs. 40 each. Several major state entities such as Bank of Ceylon, and People’s Bank along with Seylan Bank had invested in TFC share issue as well.

“The Monetary Board has taken measures to remove any board members who may have mismanaged resources, leaving only four of the original board members on the newly appointed Board. I can assure you that there is no risk whatsoever and the new Board will take further steps to make structural changes, ensure credible policy and take the company forward,” new Chairman Jayawardena told a media briefing last week.
The new Board appointed by the Central Bank consists of the Jayawardena; Ajith Devasurendra, Nirmala Anura Fernando, R. Nadarajah, Violet Dissanayake, T.B. Ekanayaka, N.C. Rupasinghe and Dr. T. Senthiverl.

TFC has succeeded in raising over Rs. 400 million in new deposits in the month of January, making a positive on them – the first month it has managed to achieve this. TFC has also whittled down its project loss to little over a billion from the Rs. 4.5 billion it reported at the height of the Golden Key crisis.

Jayawardena outlined several plans of restructuring the organisation in the near future, including the conversion of further deposits to shares in order to provide their valued customers with more concessions and benefits, obtaining fresh injections of capital and restructuring the company’s bank borrowings, which currently amount to over Rs. 1.5 billion.

source - www.ft.lk