Mandatory offer for Browns Beach shares worth Rs 1.8 b

Ravi LADDUWAHETTY

Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings PLC will make a mandatory offer for the shares of its subsidiary - Browns Beach Hotel where the effective number of shares that shareholders will exercise their rights will be 86.5 million shares worth Rs 1.8 billion.

The reason for the Mandatory Offer has been the company triggering off the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Mergers and Acquisition Code following the Rights Issue of Browns Beach Hotel (BBH) where Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings’s stake in BBH has now risen from 29 percent to 33 percent, Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings Managing Director and CEO Malin Hapugoda told Daily News Business yesterday.

“This is following the recent Rights Issue was made at Rs 65 per share followed by the subdivision of three shares for one held. The mandatory offer will see that a share will be offered at Rs 21.70 per share,” he said. The offer has been extended till April 28 due to the belief of the Secretaries of the company - Aitken Spence Corporate Finance Ltd requesting the Securities and Exchange Commission for an extension of the date to ensure that all the minority shareholders would have got the Independent Advisors Report compiled by Acuity Partners (Pvt) Ltd regarding the Mandatory Offer.

The shareholdings of Browns Beach comprises Stassens, Distilleries and related parties which have 66,096,000 shares which is valued at Rs 1,434,283, 200 (Rs 1.4 billion) and accounting for 51 percent of the shares, Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings PLC which have 43,053,120 shares which is valued at Rs 934 million (934,252,704) and the remaining shareholders which are institutional and retain investors who account for and 20,450,880 shares valued at Rs 443, 784,096 which is a 15.7 percent of the stake of the company.