ERI’s Ceylon Leather buys control of footwear exporter for Rs. 418 m

Ceylon Leather Products PLC (CLPL), a subsidiary of Environmental Resources Investment PLC (ERI), has acquired 60% of the stated capital of leading footwear exporter Palla & Company (Pvt) Ltd. for a total consideration of Rs. 418 million including preference shares.

Palla & Company is based at the EPZ, Katunayake, producing quality footwear for the export market.

The company was incorporated in 2004 as a limited liability company under the Board of Investment. The Board of Directors of Palla & Company includes Dr. K. Heengama, S. Senaratne, S. Newsome and Marc Fanning.

With the ERI acquisition in 2009, CLPL saw rapid development. The company office, footwear factory and leather goods factory were moved to a new location with better facilities.

During the financial year 2010/11, CLPL, for the first time in its history, exceeded the Rs. 1 billion turnover mark, while posting a growth of 86% over the previous year.

Post acquisition by ERI, CLPL also went on to invest in South Asia Textile Industries Lanka Ltd. (51% holding) and Dankotuwa Porcelain PLC (8% holding).

Commenting on the acquisition, CLPL Managing Director/CEO Sitendra Senaratne said: “It is another milestone for CLPL. We are happy to be the major shareholder of Palla and we are looking forward to grow with Palla’s extensive knowledge of export markets and come out with new products using their new technology. It is noteworthy that at present 100% of Palla’s production is exported, of which 40% goes to Italy.  The Palla team consists of Italian, Brazilian and Romanian experts who have extensive experience in shoe designing and production.”





“We look forward to working with CLPL whose expertise and management talent will help the company to expand its market share in foreign markets and take Palla to greater heights,” said Felipe Sechin, General Manager of Palla & Company.

“We are excited about the synergies of Palla and Ceylon Leather; namely, Palla’s access to foreign markets as well as their experienced design team and high quality standard. We also look forward to introducing Palla’s ladies footwear into the local market, which we plan to launch at Ceylon Leather’s new flagship store at the newly-refurbished 505, Union Place, Colombo Pharmacy Company location, scheduled for opening in March 2012,” he added.

ERI, within a short span of its operations in Sri Lanka, has gone on to create a world class investment company, built on a foundation of uncompromising commitment to excellence.  Its vision was to create a new version of a Sri Lankan investment company that put investors’ interests first, that was independent and conflict free, adhered to the highest ethical standards and sought to create long-term value for all stakeholders both large and small.

ERI continuously strives to be a socially responsible business entity which firmly believes in the positive and far-reaching effects of good governance policies and provides financial management, strategic guidance and strong management discipline to help restructure companies and make good companies even better.