Seylan Bank’s Rs. 4.69 b Rights Issue fully subscribed

Seylan Bank’s Rights Issue which closed last Thursday, 2 June 2011, was fully subscribed with both classes of shares (voting and non-voting) attracting applications over and above the number offered under the rights.

The objectives of the Rights Issue were initially to increase the bank’s Tier 1 Capital to have a strong capital base.

Added to this was the mobilisation of long term funds to support the proposed increase in the bank’s long-term lending portfolio, especially the housing and SME sectors and also to facilitate the bank’s branch expansion programme.  Seylan Bank Chairman Eastman Narangoda said: “The resounding success of this latest initiative is once again an overwhelming endorsement of the faith the public of Sri Lanka had in Seylan Bank.

                    

This spurs us to maintain our momentum and further propel the bank forward to even greater levels of success.”

The bank offered 43,333,333 Ordinary Voting Shares to the registered holders of Ordinary Voting Shares in the ratio of one share for every three shares held in the company at an issue price of Rs. 75 per ordinary voting share.

It parallely offered 41,186,666 Non Voting Shares to the registered holders of Ordinary Non Voting Shares in the ratio of one share for every three shares held in the company at an issue price of Rs. 35 per ordinary (non-voting) share.

General Manager/CEO Kapila Ariyaratne reiterated that Seylan Bank would implement the planned series of strategic measures. Among them will be investment in advanced technology, organisational restructuring and employee job enrichment and engagement processes by benchmarking best practices from within and outside the country. In addition there will also be a further investment on continuous staff training and development.  

Seylan’s proposed expansion programme will see an increase of its country-wide branch network while existing branches will be upgraded and refurbished. Investment in advanced IT infrastructure will add greater value to its customer service enhancement processes.

Seylan Bank recently posted an impressive Rs. 256.3 m profit in the first quarter of 2011 recording a sharp 38% increase compared with the Rs. 185.9 m in the corresponding period of the previous year. The bank’s pre-tax profit was Rs. 395 m, up by nearly 36% from the Rs. 291.7 m in the corresponding period of the previous year.  

The bank recorded a net profit of Rs. 1.2 b for 2010 which was a 126% increase compared to Rs. 543 m for 2009. Pre-tax profit, at Rs. 1.9 b, was up by an impressive 124% from 2009, the highest ever profit figure earned by the bank since its inception.

Riding high on this all-time high performance, Seylan Bank is now well positioned to further consolidate the much-envied position it commands as one of Sri Lanka’s top ranking brands.