Esufally family buys out Hemas stake of exiting foreign fund for Rs. 772m

Tuesday, 14 September 2021 01:48 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Esufally family yesterday picked up a stake held by the exiting foreign investors in a deal worth Rs. 720 million.

Overall, Hemas Holdings saw 10.7 million of its share change hands via 375 trades for Rs. 772 million.

The seller was LF Ruffer Pacific and Emerging Markets Fund which held 10 million shares or 1.68% as of 30 June.

Four Esufally brothers collectively own a 61% stake in Hemas. The four – Husein Esufally, Abbas Esufally, Imtiaz Esufally and Murtaza Esufally – bought 2.5 million shares each at Rs. 72 per share via crossings. Hemas closed yesterday at Rs. 70, down by 60 cents.

In recent weeks, foreign funds have been exiting Hemas largely due to macro reasons than corporate. The week ended 3 September saw 22.16 million of Hemas shares traded for Rs. 1.56 billion. Sellers included First State – Stewart Fund which shed 17 million shares of Hemas, reducing its stake from 3% to 1%, and a frontier market opportunity fund.

Buying of Hemas share that week was by HNWIs – Nimal Perera, Huzaifa Abdulhusein and Imitaz Buhardeen – as well as institutions such as Carson Cumberbatch and First Capital.

Given the fact that Hemas has always been stable in terms of shareholding with a good pool of long-term foreign shareholders, it is learnt the Esufally family opted to pick up the Ruffer fund stake for the same reason.

Last week, Nimal Perera said he bought into Hemas on value as the company was doing well and had good prospects after the restructuring and focusing on core business.

Hemas Holdings in 1Q delivered strong performance amidst challenging operating environment conditions with key businesses gaining momentum in all areas. The Group’s continued focus on growing the Consumer and Healthcare businesses, along with operational excellence, contributed to the resilient performance.

It said all sectors witnessed a steady growth in comparison to the lower operating results in the base quarter, which was impacted by the island wide lockdown in 2020. All key entities reached pre-COVID performance levels this quarter.

The Group recorded a consolidated revenue of Rs. 16.4 billion for the quarter ended 30 June 2021, an increase of 26.7% over last year. HHL achieved a Group operating profit of 1.1 billion, a growth of 77.5% over the last year same quarter, whilst the Group earnings of Rs. 637.3 million is an increase of Rs. 367.9 million over the previous year. Group earnings, excluding the remaining leisure assets, stood at Rs. 720.4 million, a growth of 63.6% over last year.

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