Rs. 960 m RIL Property IPO snapped up on opening day

The Rs. 960 million Initial Public Offering (IPO) of RIL Property Ltd. (RIL) was oversubscribed within minutes of opening yesterday. 

An announcement made on the floor of the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) mentioned that applications would be accepted until 4:30 p.m. (4 April) before closure of the IPO. Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC (COMB) and NDB Investment Bank (NDBIB) acted as Lead Managers and Joint Managers to the Issue, respectively.

A cornerstone investor tranche in line with regional market practices was introduced in the RIL IPO for the first time on the CSE to provide validation on the pricing and manage the success of the IPO.

RIL Property CEO Hiroshini Fernando commented: “We thank all investors who placed their confidence in RIL and made this IPO a success. We intend to execute our business plans to cater to the strong demand for commercial office spaces in Colombo and create value for our investors.”

RIL Property is a developer, owner and manager of commercial office space in Colombo and provides potential investors with an attractive opportunity to benefit from the strong growth dynamics for office spaces in Colombo. 

The IPO was for a new share issue of 120 million ordinary voting shares at Rs. 8 each with the funds raised to be utilised to refurbish an existing building adding approximately 60,000 sq. ft. of Grade ‘A’ office space to the company’s portfolio and to expand the operations of Foodbuzz Ltd., the fully-owned subsidiary holding the BreadTalk franchise in Sri Lanka.

Commercial Bank Investment Banking Unit Chief Manager Sushara Vidyasagara commented: “We are pleased with the successful oversubscription of the IPO and are of the view that RIL’s growth trajectory, strong track record and successful development of its flagship commercial office complex PARKLAND combined with the reasonable valuation that was on offer, generated investor interest for the IPO.”

NDBIB Corporate Advisory Head Nilendra Weerasinghe commented: “We experienced strong demand for the IPO from value investors in the market. The healthy appetite for real estate investments, particularly in the commercial office space segment, resulted in the IPO succeeding despite tough market conditions.”

RIL shares are expected to be traded on the CSE during the first week of May subsequent to processing the applications and payment of refunds.

Positive CSE debut for BPPL

​Newest listed entity the brushware exporter BPPL Holdings Ltd., yesterday had a positive debut. 

The shares of the company on maiden trading peaked at Rs. 13 as opposed to IPO pricing of Rs. 12 and closed at Rs. 12.40, up by 3.3%. Over 0.8 million shares changed hands via 199 trades for Rs. 10.8 million.