Orient Finance Rs. 1 b IPO opens on 25 Jan.

Orient Finance is gearing up for its Rs. 1.072 billion Initial Public Offering (IPO) which will open on 25 January.

The company intends to list on the Diri Savi Board of the CSE.

It will be offering 71.5 million ordinary voting shares at Rs. 15 each, the company said in a stock exchange filing.

Currently Orient Finance is owned by Janashakthi PLC which claims control of 99.95% of the former’s controlling stake. For the period ended 31 July 2015 the ordinary share capital of the company stood at 7.65 million valued at Rs. 306.19 million. Public holding of the company was 0.03% and consisted of three shareholders amounting to 2,502 shares.

Orient Finance merged with Bartleet Finance as per a CBSL directive in 2014 and carried the name of the former.

Profit after tax was Rs. 264 million up by a loss of Rs. 3.9 million in the corresponding period last year. However the company recorded a Rs. 17.8 million loss before taxation.

Income also declined 446.4 million from the previous year’s Rs. 465.5 million. Orient Finance was able to increase its asset base to Rs. 15.4 million compared to Rs. 6.7 million recorded in the previous quarter. 

The growth of its loan book to 12 billion from four billion was a primary contributor to the incline of its asset base.

Customer deposits also grew to Rs. 8.3 billion from Rs. 5.6 billion in the previous quarter. The company’s total liabilities were Rs. 14.6 billion up from Rs. 6.2 billion. Net assets per share increased to Rs. 109.02 from Rs. 74.50

Managers to the issue are Kenanaga Investment Corporation Ltd. whilst the registrars to the issue are KHL Corporate Services Ltd.