CSE companies trying out a range of business strategies

By Hiran H.Senewiratne 

Amid the current health issues most companies are adopting a range of business strategies to face present day challenges. CIC Holdings will go for a subdivision of its shares where every share will be subdivided into four. The purpose of its move is to increase the number of shares and liquidity level of the company.

Further, Blackstone Group Inc. has agreed to acquire the glass unit of Indian conglomerate Piramal Enterprises Ltd. for around US$1 billion. Sri Lanka’s Piramal Glass is an  entity of the Indian parent company and is dominating Sri Lanka’s glass manufacturing market.   

The latter transaction could be announced in the next few weeks, The U.S. private equity giant is in talks with banks for about a US$ 400 million, five-year loan to fund the deal, a source said. Piramal Enterprises is looking to sell some non-core businesses to boost capital.

In June, the Group agreed to sell a 20 percent stake in Piramal Pharma Ltd. to a private equity firm, Carlyle Group Inc., for US$ 490 million, giving the business an enterprise value of US$ 2.7 billion.

Amid those developments both CSE indices were down yesterday. The All Share Price Index went down by 1.77 points and S and SL20 declined by 2.71 points. The turnover stood at Rs.1.94 billion with two crossings. Those crossings took place in Dipped Products, where 200,000 shares crossed for Rs. 64 million; its shares trading at Rs. 320 and Sampath Bank 200,000 shares crossed for Rs. 25 million, its per share value being Rs. 125.

In the retail market, top five contributors to the turnover were; Sampath Bank Rs. 216 million (1.7 million shares traded), Expolank Rs. 214.5 million (8.3 million shares traded), CIC Rs. 117.3 million (891,000 shares traded), Dipped Products Rs. 112.4 million (344,000 shares traded), and Hemas Holdings Rs. 110 million (1.44 million shares traded). During the day 71 million share volumes changed hands in 17769 transactions.