Thursday, August 4, 2011

Delmege goes for Rs.387 mn sell-down

By Indika Sakalasooriya

The existing owners of Delmege Forsyth is going for a sell down of 10 percent of their holdings at Rs.7878 to raise Rs.387 million, according to Acuity Partners handling the private sale.

“Immediately after the completion of the sell down, the company hopes to make and application to the Colombo Stock Exchange seeking a direct listing/ Introduction,” Ray Abeywardena, Group CEO of Acuity told Mirror Business.

“Since this is a sell down by present owners of the company, and there is no need for the firm to wait for one year to enter the market, as in the case of a private placement,” he pointed out.

Abeywardena also said, already a number of inquires have been made about the sell down by prospective investors, and they are hoping to close the offer end of September.  

Dhammika Perera-controlled Vallibel One and Royal Ceramics recently inked a deal to fully acquire Lewis Brown Limited, the holding company of Delmege Forsythe, a company which dates back to the colonial era.

The deal was done at a whopping Rs.3.1 billion.

Vallibel One, which came to the Colombo bourse recently, purchased 51 percent of Delmege, while Royal Ceramics (RCL) bought 20 percent.

Dhammika and RCL Managing Director Nimal Perera purchased 10 percent each and
RCL CEO Tharana Thoradeniya bought 5 percent. The remaining 4 percent was bought by RCL Chairman A.M Weerasinghe.

According to Nimal Perera, this strategic acquisition will open Vallibel One doors to the  FMCG business. “Delmege is similar to another Hayleys” Perera said.

However, after the acquisition, L.R Global, a frontier markets-focused private equity and asset management company based in New York, with offices in Bangladesh, Vietnam, Singapore and Sri Lanka, acquired Nimal Perera’s 10 percent stake.

Delemege Forsythe is a diversified group with interests in FMCG, export and import business, shipping, freight forwarding, insurance broking, pharmaceuticals and travel. The company is owned by businessman Ricky Mendis and his family.

source - www.dailymirror.lk

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