Orient Garments first apparel manufacturer to debut on CSE today

Orient Garments Ltd. (OGL) will become the first apparel manufacturer to debut on the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) when 54.9 million of its shares are listed and commence trading today.

Part of the FINCO Group of Companies, OGL will be classified under the manufacturing sector on the Diri Savi Board.

OGL, having established in 1982 as a specialised outerwear manufacturer for the export market, is today a fully-fledged garment manufacturer with 1,500 direct machine capacity employing over 3,500 personnel.

OGL Group comprises of the holding company and two subsidiaries, Stafford Orient (Pvt) Limited and Priority Garments (Pvt) Limited.

The Group currently serves many leading international brands, including Next, Tesco, Tommy Hilfiger, Polo Ralph Lauren and Burberry.

OGL Group has posted Rs. 2.8 billion revenue and earned Rs. 125.7 million profit attributable to shareholders during the financial year 2009/2010. For the 11-month period ended 28 February 2011, revenue was Rs. 3.3 billion and profit attributable to shareholders was Rs. 98.2 million. Net asset value of the Group as at 31 March 2010 was Rs. 512.3 million, which had improved to Rs. 603.7 million by end of February 2011.

Company operations are expected to gather a steady upward momentum with its moves to reinforce its position in its niche market, capitalising on its competitive strengths such as design capabilities, skilled workforce and the level of service.

Harsha De Silva, Managing Director of Navara Capital, which is managing the listing of OGL, stated that this was the first instance an apparel manufacturer was obtaining a listing, although the sector represents almost half of Sri Lanka’s export earnings.

“We hope that this listing will encourage other players in the industry to share their success with the investing public by listing their shares on the CSE,” he added.

OGL shares will be introduced at Rs. 23, which was the same price at which the private placement was carried out in December 2010. At the introductory price, the company will have a market capitalisation of Rs. 1.2 billion at a PE of 10.00.

The FINCO Group of Companies with its history of nearly 50 years is today a well-diversified conglomerate with interests in a set of diversified business sectors encompassing construction, travel, leisure, manufacturing, IT and so on. The Group’s portfolio includes Sri Lanka’s iconic MI contractor, International Construction Consortium (Pvt) Limited, which is known as ICC, and the leading office furniture and equipment manufacturer under the well-known brand ‘Alpha,’ Alpha Industries (Pvt) Limited.