Singer Finance IPO oversubscribed

Thursday, 16 December 2010 00:25 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Rs. 400 million Initial Public Offering of Singer Finance (Lanka) Limited has been oversubscribed, following which it was closed on its official opening day yesterday.

The company issued 26,666,667 million new shares at Rs. 15 each to raise Rs. 400 million.

The issue, which was closed at 4.30 p.m. yesterday amidst positive investor and stockbroker sentiments, will result in the ultimate public holding of the company increasing to 25%.

Bad loans at Singer Finance amounted to 1.9 per cent of gross loans, which is significantly below that of the industry. Bad loans at registered finance companies have risen to 11.7 per cent of gross loans by June 2010.

Singer Finance enjoys a unique advantage in having access to its customers through a vast network of over 345 outlets of its parent company, Singer (Sri Lanka) PLC, apart from operating through six of its own branches and six service centres.

The company offers leasing and hire purchase facilities whilst providing consumer loans to Singer customers.

The company has reported a profit of Rs. 49.7 million for the five months ended 31 August 2010 compared to a profit of Rs. 54.1 million for the year ended 31 March 2010.

The total public deposit base and total lending portfolio of the company stood at Rs. 1.7 billion and Rs. 3.1 b respectively as at August 31, 2010 as per the Prospectus.