Kapruka Holdings debuts trading on the CSE

Podium participants, from left: Kapruka Holdings General Manager Suresh Eranda, Acuity Partners Consultant Corporate Finance Avanthi Dissanyake, Acuity Partners Managing Director and CSE Director Ray Abeywardena, Kapruka Holdings Director Anuradha Herath, Kapruka Holdings Chairman/CEO Dulith Herath, CSE Chairman Dumith Fernando, CSE Director Jayantha Fernando, Acuity Partners Director Research Shehan Cooray, Acuity Partners Associate Corporate Finance Hansinee Beddage and CSE CEO Rajeeva Bandaranaike 

CSE Chairman Dumith Fernando

Kapruka Holdings Chairman and CEO Dulith Herath

The shares of Kapruka Holdings Ltd. commenced trading on the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) on Friday 7 January. 

The shares have been listed on the Main Board of the CSE under the ‘Retailing’ sector. 

Its share price peaked at a high of Rs. 24.40 before closing at Rs. 22.30, up by Rs. 6.90 or 45% from its IPO price. Over 17 million shares changed hands via 7,059 trades for Rs. 390.47 million.

The occasion was marked with a special Bell Ringing Ceremony.

Representing Kapruka Holdings, Chairman and CEO Dulith Herath, Director Anuradha Herath and General Manager Suresh Eranda, attended the event. Financial advisor and manager to the issue Acuity Partners were represented by Managing Director Ray Abeywardena, Director Research Shehan Cooray, Associate Corporate Finance Hansinee Beddage and Consultant Corporate Finance Avanthi Dissanayake. 

The CSE was represented at the event by its Chairman Dumith Fernando, Director Jayantha Fernando, Chief Executive Officer Rajeeva Bandaranaike, Chief Regulatory Officer Renuke Wijayawardhane and the CSE Senior Management. 

Speaking at the ceremony, the CSE Chairman Fernando congratulated Kapruka Holdings on its initiative to go public and the company being six times oversubscribed on the first day of the IPO. “It is indeed a pleasure to welcome the first IPO of 2022 through the listing of Kapruka Holdings. It is also special because it is the first e-commerce company of significant size coming to the market, and I couldn’t think of a better company than the leader in that segment to start what I hope is just the beginning of a lot more IT and e-commerce companies coming to the capital market this year. Kapruka Holdings is truly a global Sri Lankan company, connecting 1.1 million international customers back to Sri Lanka, and it has provided significant employment through all the supply partners in the country as well. So, it has created a lot of social impact. These are the companies that we, as a stock exchange, love to see come into this market.”

Commenting on the overall listing, Fernando added: “In the year 2021, over Rs. 120 billion worth of new capital was raised through the CSE. Thirteen companies were listed last year, and we are at a record pace in the equity market. It also needs to be mentioned that every single IPO has been oversubscribed on the very first day since it was relaunched in 2021. With this, we encourage many others to take this course and, as the CSE, we invite Kapruka Holdings to enjoy the privileges of being a listed company, and we are very proud and happy to have you.”

Speaking at the event, Kapruka Chairman and CEO Herath commented: “20 years ago, I managed to get the Kapruka.com domain registered. Getting a domain name was a big deal 20 years ago as I built this company. If you look at the share structure of the company, 80% of the shares are owned by me and 20% of the shares are owned by the public. That is the uniqueness of the company. Kapruka has never raised a single rupee from any individual investors before; it was built on its own profits. We only have Rs. 200 billion in debt, which is a marvellous story for the size of a company like this. This demonstrates that if an entrepreneur is determined and committed, he or she can build a company like this. The next uniqueness of Kapruka is that it’s a profitable company compared to the other global e-commerce companies. I hope that the Kapruka story will encourage more and more tech companies to come to the market.”

Herath commented on the event, thanking Acuity Partners for constantly encouraging him to take the first step toward entering the market. “In order to raise funds, I had three options. Option one was to tie up with a wealthy individual, option two was to borrow, and option three was to go public with the CSE, and I picked option three.”