Browns Investment Limited was yesterday granted the nod to list shares in the Diri Savi Board of the Colombo Stock Exchange. The company is expected to issue 50 million shares, each at Rs.5.
Taprobane Holdings Limited functions as Managers to the issue and Registrars to the issue is SSP Corporate Services Private Limited.
Browns Investment Private Limited is a joint venture between Brown & Company PLC and Traprobane Holdings Private Limited.
The company conducted a pre-IPO private placement of Rs.2.5 billion by selling 500 million shares, each at Rs.5 recently.
According to sources, Browns Investments which in a way resembles business figure Dhammika Perera’s Valllible One, has investments in various sectors including power generation, plantation, property and construction and hotels.
It is learnt that Browns Investments has significant investments in the hotels and leisure sectors via LOLC Group amounting to Rs.400 million and plantation investments via Free Lanka Capital Holdings (FLCH) amounting over Rs.500 million.
Browns Investments holds investments in Pussellawa Plantations Ltd and Maturata Plantations Ltd (MPL) through FLCH.
When it comes to leisure, Browns Investments has a 30% holding in LOLC leisure Pvt Ltd., the leisure arm of the LOLC group. LOLC leisure owns former Furkhan family properties including Rivirina, Palm Garden and Eden as well as the boutique hotel Tropical Villas.
LOLC Leisure is currently carrying out a major refurbishment with a view of going public. This would presumably give an exit route with capital gain to Browns Investments.
Browns Investments has also acquired 841 perches of beach front property in Kosgoda, and plans are underway to build a 3 star hotel consisting 150 rooms. Also FLCH plans to renovate and convert two estate bungalows into boutique hotels.
Entering the construction sector, Browns Investments in partnership with LOLC acquired a 20 percent stake in Sierra Construction Private limited in November 2010.
Recently in a stock exchange disclosure, LOLC officially informed the Colombo Stock Exchange about its entrance to the construction sector with a further acquisition of 20 percent of Sierra Holdings Private Limited which holds 60 percent stake in Sierra construction Limited.
“The total investment for LOLC and Browns to acquire these shares is said to be Rs.1.6 billion” the disclosure said.
Sierra Holding Private Limited also holds controlling stakes in Sierra Cables and Agstar Fertilizer Private Limited. According to sources, following this acquisition, Browns Investments holds nearly 25 percent of the Agstar Fertilizer. It is believed that with the acquisition of shares in Agsatar, Browns Investments will step into the agriculture sector as well.
It is also learnt that with the entry to the construction sector, LOLC and Browns Investment plan to build and operate a commercial office complex in Colombo 08, with 80,000 square feet rentable place.
source - www.dailymirror.lk
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