No sale of CIC stakes

Rusi Captain denies:

Ravi LADDUWAHETTY

Veteran investor and Company Director Rusi Captain, whose company Paints and General Industries Ltd owns 56% of agriculture- rich Chemical Industries Colombo PLC (CIC) yesterday denied rife market speculation that he was to sell his company’s stake in the local outfit of the multinational blue chip.

Rusi Captain and related parties who collectively own 23% of premier blue chip diversified corporate conglomerate John Keells Holdings PLC, told Daily News Business yesterday that he was not selling anything related to Chemical Industries Colombo PLC and that he was merely a shareholder.

This follows market speculation that due to the Paints and General Industries Ltd holding the controlling industries and Captain getting a recent Board seat on CIC that the company was going to sell 56% stake or to make a killing on a partial sale of the company.

The backdrop of the market speculation was due to foreign investors buying over 2 million CIC shares within the last few days which led the market to speculate that the Captains were divesting their stakes. Analysts also said the financial performance of the CIC Group was very positive with wholly owned subsidiary CIC Agribusiness set to make Profit Before Tax of Rs. 80- Rs. 95 m per month and the CIC Group Post Tax Profit set to be over Rs. 100 m per month from June 2008.

Further positive features of the company’s performance was the divestiture of the 36.7 percent of the CIC subsidiary Chemanex’s stake in Commercial Leasing which had a Capital gains of Rs. 97.7 m which has substantially reduced the financing costs of CIC.

CIC also has captured 47% of the local paints market and the recent acquisition of CIC’s parent company Imperial Chemical Industries PLC by Akzo Nobel of Netherlands which is the largest paint manufacturer also put the CIC stakes high.

CIC’s Net Asset Value per share is Rs. 47.32.

It has also made a net profit after tax of Rs. 186.26 million for the three months ended June 2008.