SEC relaxes price constraints on finance company crossings
View(s):The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday directed the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) to relax rules pertaining to price constraints on share crossings on finance companies gearing for consolidation.
Now a crossing shall not take place at a price below 5 per cent of the closing price in a crossing in CSE’s Automated Trading Rules. As an example, if the closing price of a share was Rs. 100 the crossing cannot be at less than Rs. 95. This rule will be relaxed to any price.
“The SEC further decided to require companies seeking to benefit from this directive to apply to SEC to determine whether the proposed share transactions fall within the ambit of the financial sector consolidation plan if requested by the respective firms and to be determined by the SEC as such,” the SEC circular said.
As of mid this month, some eight banks and 29 non bank financial institutions confirmed their merger and acquisition transactions under the consolidation programme, according to the Central Bank.