* 20.5 m Spence shares sold to Aberdeen Fund for Rs. 2.3bn
* Says even willing to sell remainder if the offer was attractive
By Ravi Ladduwahetty
Hot on the heels of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) selling its 8.4% stake amounting to 71 million shares in premier blue chip John Keells Holdings PLC to Malaysia’s Khazanah Fund worth Rs. 14.5 billion just last Friday for a capital gain of around Rs. 800 million, the pension provider followed suit yesterday by selling a 20.5 million share stake in the rival - diversified and leisure –rich blue chip Aitken Spence for Rs. 2.3 billion (Rs. 2,357.5 million) to a Foreign Fund Manager.
The EPF was the third largest shareholder of Aitken Spence as at December 31, 2011, where the pension provider had 29.836 million shares. With the sale of 20.6 million shares yesterday and with the sale of the earlier 1.2 million shares three weeks ago, the remaining EPF portfolio in Aiken Spence was 7.936 million as at end yesterday.
The 20.5 million shares sold yesterday was picked up by one of the six Aberdeen Funds operating in Colombo where all six Funds have injected funds into the Vauxhall Street blue chip and the Fund that picked up the stake yesterday was widely believed to be the Aberdeen Asia Pacific Fund. However, CT Smith Stockbrokers which clinched the deal for the lone buyers’ broker remained tight-lipped on the name of the buyer. Managing Director/CEO Rohan Fernando said that it was in the best interests of all concerned that the name of the buyer was withheld.
The reason for the decision of the EPF to sell a majority stake in the Vauxhall Street blue chip was the fear of a reprisal following the mandatory offer by the Harry Jayawardena - led Melstar Corp, where with the completion of the offer the shares of the diversified blue chip might be even delisted, frontline market sources told The Island Financial Review last night.
No one will know what the future will hold for Aitken Spence following the mandatory offer where the offer was made at Rs. 110, then increased to Rs. 112.83 and it increased to Rs. 115 and that was also the price that we sold it to Aberdeen. This decision has been made being fully aware and being acutely conscious of business tycoon Harry Jayawardena not known to pay dividends all this time when Aitken Spence was even listed and we do want to compromise the interests of the public whose savings over a life time were with the EPF, sources close to the deal said.
When contacted by The Island Financial Review, EPF Superintendent Kalyani Gunatilleke said that the Fund did not mind selling the remaining Spence shares if the offer price was attractive. She said that the EPF had not even met the buyer, but was aware of the transaction only when the brokers- CT Smith contacted her yesterday morning.
She also said that this was nothing new as there was a purchase of the Spence shares in EPF around two to three weeks ago by the same Aberdeen Fund where 1.2 million shares were purchased, also at Rs. 115. "The deal yesterday would also have been triggered by the John Keells Holdings transaction last Friday which is a booster for both the Colombo Stock Exchange and Sri Lanka as an investment destination," she said
Meanwhile, there was also a sale of 1.5 million shares of John Keells Holdings PLC yesterday where 1.5 million shares were sold at Rs. 200 The total turnover of the market was Rs. 3.1 billion where the net inflows was Rs. 2.7 billion, out of which Rs. 2.3 billion came from the sale of the EPF shares in Aitken Spence shares to the Aberdeen Fund while the remaining Rs. 400 million shares came from the sale of the JKH shares.
source - www.island.lk
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