HWIC Asia Fund completes Rs. 27 b debt to equity conversion; now owns 24.3% of JKH

Monday, 27 January 2025 02:25 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

John Keells Holdings PLC (JKH) said last week that it completed the conversion of unlisted debentures to equity by HWIC Asia Fund, a subsidiary of Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., the largest shareholder.

Way back in August 2022, JKH issued Rs. 208.125 million denominated unlisted debentures with a convertible option with a face value of Rs. 27.06 billion to HWIC. The debentures were issued at Rs. 130 each with the option for conversion to ordinary voting shares based on the approval granted by shareholders.

HWIC has exercised its option to convert the remaining balance 98.125 million debentures with a face value of Rs. 12.76 billion. HWIC partially converted 110 million debentures in February last year.

JKH said it issued and listed 1 billion new ordinary voting shares of the company as adjusted for the recently concluded Rights Issue and sub division of shares. The dilution from this issuance is 6.13% based on the number of shares outstanding as at 22 January 2025. Post this conversion, HWIC now has a shareholding of 24.31% of the company. At the end of September 2024, HWIC Asia Fund held 19.4% stake in JKH.