Laugfs IPO attracted the common man - Laugfs Chairman

“The Laugfs IPO attracted the common man and mostly persons who had never participated at an IPO or had any dealings in stocks previously, said Laugfs Chairman W.K.H. Wegapitiya.

Laugfs IPO, issued to raise Rs. 2.5 billion was over subscribed by 20 times and attracted Rs.42.3 billion. The company offered voting and non- voting shares to raise 22 percent of its equity capital.

The company offered Rs. 75 million voting and Rs.52 million non-voting shares on the basis of 80 percent to the public and 10 percent to the employees, dealers and customers under the theme “Share the golden harvest”

The number of subscriptions surpassed 64,000, a record in the history of the IPO at CSE, Wegapitiya said. The ordinary voting shares allocated to public over subscribed by 20.2 times and ordinary non-voting shares allocated to public was oversubscribed 21.8 times. The customer category too was over subscribed by 2.8 times and 5.4 times in voting and non-voting categories respectively.

Wegapitiya said that the applications were drawn countrywide even from remote districts including North and East provinces. “We intend to retain these applicants as shareholders who will remain in the company in the long run and expected to be benefitted by better returns and also with active engagement in the company’s affairs in the future”, he said.

The company has decided to allot the shares on a just and equitable basis among all categories of applicants for both classes of shares on offer. The basic principals behind making the allotments were; all endeavours to be taken to allot a share/shares to each and every applicant, all applicants applied up to 200 shares of any class will be allotted in full, both classes of shares on offer will be allotted on fair proportion to the total number of shares applied by an individual applicant of any category.

The Laugfs IPO was to finance the expansion plan of the company including enhancement of its storage and filling capacity, widen the distribution network and introduction of new LP gas products.

Also part of the funds raised through the IPO will be utilised for two key development projects envisaged by two of its subsidiaries to construct a 100 room hotel at Chilaw a premium location in the west coast to cater to the booming tourism industry and a 72 roomed service apartment in the heart of Colombo city. The balance funds will be utilised to settle high cost short and long term borrowing, the company said. (GW)