Financial Times

Lankan corporate news

The following are snippets of the action in the corporate marketplace last week.

-SNFE-Arisaig India Fund bought over 2.9 million shares amounting to a 12.3 percent stake in Richard Peiris and Co on August 18, Asia Securities said. RPC rose almost 10 percent to Rs. 140.

-John Keells Holdings is expected to record a strong performance, CT Smith Stockbrokers said in a research report. The company has a strong balance sheet, key investments in growth sectors and a sound management, it said. Future earnings are likely to be boosted significantly by the big investments in the transport sector that are now bearing fruit.

-The US corporation whose assets Haycarb has announced it is interested in buying is believed to be its American distributor from which it had wanted to acquire value-adding technologies. Haycarb has had a relationship with Barnebey and Sutcliffe since 1994.

Barnebey and Sutcliffe is now a subsidiary of Waterlink, Inc, a company engaged in water and effluent treatment in the US and Europe, that in June filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.

-Corporate raider Dhammika Perera made a mandatory offer to shareholders of LB Finance Ltd to buy the remaining shares of the company in terms of Rule 31 of the Takeover and Mergers Code 1995. This came after the young entrepreneur acquired 4.1 million LB Finance shares on July 28 raising his stake to 60.9 percent in the company.