Taprobane Securities says...

Taprobane Securities refer to several news items published in regard to the transaction of The Finance Company (TFC) shares on the trading floor of the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) on April 27, 2012.

These shares were acquired by our buying client, the National Savings Bank (NSB). Since then, some debate has arisen regarding this transaction, based mainly on the premise that the price per share at which the transaction was effected was significantly higher than the previous day's trading price.

Generally a 13% parcel of shares may attract a "per share" price that is higher than the "per share" price of a small quantity of shares that may be traded on the floor. We have been informed that the majority of these shares were purchased by our selling clients several months ago at approximately Rs.48 per share, at a time when the share was trading at a considerably lower price.

Nevertheless, since NSB (our buying client) had expressed the view that it would wish to reverse the recent transaction, we have obtained the consent of our selling clients to reverse the transaction so that they could once again assume the ownership of this parcel of shares. Our selling clients have agreed to do so, because they have intimated to us, that they do recognize the value of the share.