Ranjan Gomez sells Access Engineering stake, NDB Wealth buys in

• 35 m shares trade for Rs. 759 m

Access Engineering PLC founder Director Ranjan Gomez sold his stake in the company on 19 August, with NDB Wealth as buyer for several funds it manages. 

On 19 August, 35 million shares of AEL traded for Rs. 759.6 million. Of that, nearly 25 million shares were done at Rs. 21 per share via six crossings.  The price touched an intra-day high of Rs. 22.50, but the stock closed at Rs. 22.10 up by Rs. 1.60 or nearly 8%. Yesterday it closed at Rs. 22.20 with 5.4 million shares traded.

As at 30 June 2020, Gomez held 30.2 million shares or 3%.

He functioned as the Joint Managing Director of the Group since 1997. Companies under his purview include Access Holdings Ltd., ATSL International Ltd., ATSL Telesoft Ltd., Access Energy Solutions Ltd., and business units of Access International Ltd.

Gomez was not available for comment, but market sources said he may have sold the stake for liquidity purposes, to fund his other investments. He has been shedding smaller stakes since early July.

Analysts said NDB Wealth sees an upside in the construction and infrastructure sector under the new Government. AEL is strong in infrastructure development for water supply, and given the need to increase distribution and availability to nearly 40% of the population, prospects for the company are good. 

The new Government is also expediting payments for past State contracts undertaken by construction and engineering firms.

In the first quarter of FY 2020, AEL Group revenue had come down to Rs. 3.6 billion from Rs. 5.4 billion a year earlier, whilst suffering a Group pre-tax loss of Rs. 6.4 million as against a profit of Rs. 343.8 million. Reversal in income tax of Rs. 49 million enabled the Group to end the 1Q with a Group post tax profit of Rs. 43 million, though down from Rs. 288 million. At company level, turnover was down from Rs. 3.6 billion to Rs. 2.78 billion, and after tax profit was Rs. 2010 million as against Rs. 466 million.