Janashakthi Insurance completes Rs. 11.7 b share repurchase

Janashakthi Insurance Plc has completed by far the biggest share repurchase deals worth Rs. 11.7 billion. 

The company said 318 million of its shares have been repurchased by the company at a consideration of Rs. 36.7 per share with total transaction value of Rs. 11.67 billion. 

The basis of repurchase was a pro-rata basis of three ordinary shares for every five held. The maximum number of shares to be repurchased was 326.7 million and the final figure reflects a deficit of 8.7 million shares. 

Subsequent to the repurchase exercise, the voting shares of JINS had decreased to 226.5 million from 544.5 million. 

The repurchase was approved by the Insurance Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka and Janashakthi has also complied with all the requisite provisions of the Companies Act and other statutory requirements.

The repurchase follows Janashakthi selling its general insurance company to Allianz of Germany for Rs. 16.4 billion in February and the company deciding to distribute a portion of the sale proceeds to shareholders. 

The Janashakthi Board believed that the distribution will benefit shareholders enabling them to optimise their returns by channeling the cash returned by the company to preferred investments of their choice. 

As at 31 December 2017, JINS had around 5,700 shareholders and a public shareholding of 23.4%. Janashakthi Plc was the biggest shareholder with 76% stake. Other major shareholders included Dunamis Capital Plc (3%), Bank of Ceylon (1.95%) and Suktam Holdings (1%).