Kapruka holds successful Investor Forum on its Rs. 500 m IPO

Monday, 20 December 2021 00:47 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Kapruka Founder and CEO Dulith Herath (second from left) along with Director Anuradha Herath at the investor forum. Managers to the issue Acuity Partners Group MD and CEO Ray Abeywardena and Senior Vice President Corporate Finance Shehan Cooray are also present

Kapruka Holdings Ltd., Sri Lanka’s largest locally owned e-commerce enterprise with a global presence, last Friday successfully concluded its investor forum, ahead of its IPO opening on Wednesday.

The hybrid event, held both physically at Cinnamon Grand Colombo and virtually via video conferencing, witnessed broad-based participation across institutional, individual and retail investor categories, along with active participation by respected financial analysts.

Subsequent to Kapruka’s corporate management team presenting their value proposition to the participants, an active Q&A session followed, allowing potential stakeholders to engage in in-depth conversations with key decision makers.

Expressing his satisfaction, Kapruka Founder and CEO Dulith Herath said: “I believe we have presented a compelling pitch to investors with great underlying value and fundamentals. We are very gratified by the warm and enthusiastic reception we received. There were some insightful questions also raised, which we were able to respond to, satisfactorily.

“We now look forward to the opening of the issue on 22 December 2021, and are confident of receiving active interest from a wide-spectrum of investors. I take this opportunity to personally thank everyone who participated and thank all our future investors in advance.” With the issue being managed by Acuity Partners, Kapruka Holdings is expected to offer 32,826,000 ordinary voting shares through its IPO, at an offer price of Rs. 15.40 per share. The company plans to use the IPO proceeds to fund its expansion and growth plans, which include upgrading existing technology and infrastructure, alongside launching various Kapruka Platform Services, to carry forward new initiatives.

Founded in 2002, Kapruka is Sri Lanka’s first and largest locally owned e-commerce enterprise. The company, through its website, facilitates online purchases of goods for its Sri Lankan and expatriate customer base. The company has a well-integrated supply chain and sells its own-label products, predominantly, Kapruka bakery items, flowers and value-added fruits and vegetables.

The company partners with over 500 high-end brands and executes order fulfilment and last mile delivery for its online orders. Kapruka strives to provide a non-marketplace model and a superior online shopping experience to consumers.

The company caters to over 1.1 million expatriate Sri Lankans, predominantly in the US, who regularly use Kapruka to send gifts to their family and friends in Sri Lanka. Further, the company offers Sri Lankan brands on global e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, eBay, Etsy and Walmart, and is the e-distributor/e-commerce retailer for well-established brands such as Dilmah, Akbar Tea, Link Samahan and many more.

Kapruka is also one of the few e-commerce companies in Sri Lanka that generates dollar revenues by serving expatriate Sri Lankans and other global customers. The company has its central office located in Colombo, along with offices in the US, the UK and Australia.