Dud deal?

In a bizarre and perhaps unprecedented development, the T+3 settlement deadline as per rule in the Colombo Bourse on National Savings Bank's purchase of a 13% stake in The Finance Company Plc (TFC) hadn't been met yesterday.

NSB bought the stake amounting to 7.8 million shares for Rs. 393 million on Friday. As per the existing rules, Trade+3 market days fell yesterday since Tuesday was a market holiday.

The Daily FT reliably learns that the bulk of the settlement hadn’t taken place as of close of business yesterday, prompting analysts to describe it “bizarre” and “unprecedented”.

NSB acquired the stake via 15 trades from different sellers. The buying broker was Taprobane Securities. The major sellers were Dinal Wijemanne whose Tabrobane Securities was the buying broker and Rayynor Silva (amounting to 2.9 million shares each), Nandadeva Perera 669,700 shares and Yogendra Perera 667,700 shares. They accounted for 89% of the TFC shares traded on Friday, whilst NSB picked up the balance shares from the market.

Other sources said that there could have been a miscommunication or a lapse at some point for payments to have not reached before the stipulated time whilst another view was that smaller sellers may have been settled.

Non-settlement within T+3 could trigger regulatory action.

Officials of the Colombo Stock Exchange and Taprobane Securities could not be reached for comment at the time this edition went to press.