Hemas through J.L. Morison to export OTC items to Myanmar
Hemas Holdings PLC’s (Hemas) generic pharmaceutical manufacturing operation at JL Morrison Son & Jones (JLM) aims to export over the counter (OTC) products within a year to Myanmar, top officials said.
JLM CEO Trihan Perera told the Business Times that their new US$13.5 million manufacturing plant now under construction at the Homagama Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology (SLINTEC) facility will ensure that export demand is met.
Hemas acquired a 88.8 per cent stake (Compositely in Voting and Non-Voting
Compositely) in J.L. Morison Sons and Jones in May 2013.
The JLM Group has a portfolio of well-established consumer brands including Lacto Calamine, Valmelix, Morrison’s Gripe Mixture and Morrison’s Baby products. JLM distributes Good Knight, Kiwi, Wipro, Nivea, Garnier and L’Oreal as well as manufacturing and distributing pharmaceutical products island wide. “These are strong brands and they have strong distribution,” Mr. Perera said noting that JLM will initially be exporting products such as Lacto Calamine to Myanmar. “We will concentrate initially on exporting OTC items,” he said.
The status of the Rs. 4.1 billion funds raised through Hemas Rights Issue (RI) will be to fund strategic investment opportunities in the Healthcare and Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sectors and the company last month said that despite evaluating many opportunities, but none so far has materialised.
Hemas FMCG revenue improved 19 per cent year on year (YoY) to Rs. 3.72 billion driven by higher demand for their personal care and personal wash products; Velvet and Kumarika. Its FMCG earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) dropped 3 per cent YoY, burdened by higher input cost and distribution related expenses for Bangladesh operations.
During the year ended 31 March 2017, the group made the investments and acquisitions as part of the restructuring of the group’s Leisure Travel and Aviation sector.
Logistics sector at Hemas saw its revenue increase by 125 per cent YoY, driven by a growth in the new maritime agency, Evergreen. Hemas has invested $5.2 million to improve the capacity in the logistics segment. The company aims to fund three startups each year with an idea is to make their products and services future-ready. Hemas aims at securing a leg in a particular business that has potential to be big in the future.
Hemas also managed to attract some foreign funds this year and got Norges in its top 10 shareholder list at number 8 as at 4Q17.
Citi Bank New York S/A Norges Bank Account 2 also had 8,988,919 shares corresponding to 1.57 per cent stake as at March this year.