Colombo, 15 June, (Asiantribune.com): Sri Lanka’s Central Bank’s Monetary Board run Employees Provident Fund (EPF) bought a large parcel of one of country’s highly valued stocks listed in Colombo Bourse. Accordingly, EPF bought 520,966 shares of Diesel and Motor Engineering Company PLC (DIMO) at a price of Rs.1,416 per share, and further 23,029 million shares of country’s household popular name Arpico owned Richard Pieris & Company PLC (RICH) in two crossings.
According to market sources from the capital market in Sri Lanka, King of Bonds and Taprobane Holdings Chairman Ajith Devasurendra had sold his Richard Pieris & Company PLC stake to Sri Lanka’s pension fund EPF, whilst Perpetual Capital’s Arjun Aloysius’ Grandfather Kattar Aloysius owned Thurston Investments had sold their stake in DIMO to EPF.
As at 31 March 2011, Employees Provident Fund (EPF) was the third largest shareholder of DIMO having a 10.33% stake with 899,100 shares, whilst EPF also had 99.18 million shares of Richard Pieris (RICH)
Since January this year, Sri Lanka’s largest Social Security fund EPF managed by Monetary Board of Central Bank under the guidance of Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal had been buying several stakes of listed companies in the island nation held by either Arjun Aloysius led Perpetual Capital or stakes held by Ajith Devasurendra according to market sources.
It was also evident in May 2011 that Employees provident Fund (EPF) and the Laugfs Gas (LGL) have emerged among top seven shareholders of Ceylon Grain Elevators (GRAN), replacing Perpetual Capital Ltd and Perpetual Asset Management Ltd, in the latest quarterly financials of the company. Subsequently as per financials, several shareholders such as Aviva NDB Insurance, Symphony Capital and Ajith Devasurendra had disappeared from the top 20 shareholders list of GRAN whilst back in 11 February 2011 it was reported that Perpetual Capital, an investment fund, has bought 10.3% stake in Grain Elevators belonging to Singapore’s Prima Group on February 10, a move that reflected bullishness in the food and beverage sector of the country.
On the contrary EPF has stepped up buying further into Sri Lanka’s premier blue chip John Keells Holdings (JKH) at recent times by picking up a bulk of the 2.36 million shares of JKH which traded for Rs. 656 million whilst on March this year after collecting over one million JKH shares. EPF also bought 1 million Royal Ceramics shares for Rs. 150 million on the Mid March. On April this year with a bullish outlook in equity investments, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) picked up 1 million shares of Aitken Spence (SPEN) for Rs. 165.5 million whilst the seller was Carson Cumberbatch Group (CARS).
Sri Lanka’s largest social security fund EPF that has working population’s savings exceeding Rs.900 billion had been aggressively investing in Sri Lanka’s capital market since May last year when it began investing in Colombo’s five start hotel Galadari becoming the largest institutional shareholder of the company. Thereafter EPF had been actively buying large stakes in premier licensed commercial bank’s of the island nation and EPF is the sixth largest shareholder in Seylan Bank PLC (SEYB) having 5.16%, seventh largest shareholder of DFCC Bank having 4.76%, second largest shareholder of Sampath Bank (SAMP) having 8.25% and second largest shareholder of HNB having over 7% and has over 9% of Commercial Bank of Ceylon (COMB).
- Asian Tribune -
http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2011/06/15/sri-lanka-epf-buys-richard-pieris-and-dimo-devasurendra-and-thurston-investments