Sarvodaya Development Finance rings bell to debut trading at CSE

Wednesday, 15 December 2021 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

CSE Chairman Dumith Fernando and CEO Rajeeva Bandaranaike presenting the listing certificate to Sarvodaya Development Finance Chairman Channa De Silva and CEO Nilantha Jayanetti

The shares of Sarvodaya Development Finance Ltd. (SDF-N-0000) commenced trading on the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) yesterday.

SDF saw 2.4 million of its shares change hands via 1,286 trades for Rs. 54.1 million. The share traded

CSE Chairman

Dumith Fernando

Sarvodaya Development Finance Chairman Channa De Silva

between a price range of Rs. 26 and Rs. 19.50 before closing at Rs. 21.50, down by 50 cents from IPO price.

The shares have been listed on the Main Board of the CSE under the ‘Consumer Finance’ sector. The occasion was marked with a special bell-ringing ceremony.

The listing follows a successful Initial Public Offering (IPO) by the company, through which it raised approximately Rs. 01 billion through a share issue of 45.45 million at an issue price of Rs. 22 each. The issue was a success with an oversubscription on the first day of its offer.

Sarvodaya Development Finance Ltd. Chairman Channa De Silva, CEO Nilantha Jayanetti, Dollar Corporation Chairman and Managing Director Dr. Thirugnanasambandar Senthilverl, Janashakthi Group MD/Group CEO Ramesh Schaffter, Sarvodaya Thalawila Society Chairman Nimal Marasinghe, and NDB Investment Bank Director/CEO Darshan Perera joined the event. The CSE was represented by Chairman Dumith Fernando, CEO Rajeeva Bandaranaike, and Chief Regulatory Officer Renuke Wijeyawardhane at the event.

CSE Chairman Fernando, speaking at the ceremony, welcomed the company to the CSE. “The company has had an exceptional track record of growth over the last few years and has shown readiness to be a listed company as evidenced by its transparency and governance through its award-winning annual reports as well.

“Sarvodaya Development Finance (SDF), which is part of the Sarvodaya Movement in Sri Lanka, is the first impact investment opportunity to come to the public market; and we are confident that this will provide an investment opportunity for investors to participate in creating social and economic value across communities in Sri Lanka. Elevating and supporting SMEs, who play a dominant role in the Sri Lankan economy, is also a key focus of CSE. Therefore, we are pleased to see companies such as SDF coming forth to ensure that the support given to SMEs is maintained and improved. We also do hope that many SMEs supported by SDF will end up on our Empower Board, hopefully, as part of our push towards more SME listings,” Fernando said.

“The company had a successful IPO which was oversubscribed on the very first day, thereby maintaining the track record of the CSE this year, where every single IPO has been oversubscribed on the very first day. The interest received from the public for the IPO indicates investor interest not just in equity markets, but in the interest in diversifying the exposures in the equity market, which, through its impact in the nature of SDF, we today introduced a very new and different type of asset class for investors participated,” the CSE Chairman added.

Sarvodaya Development Finance Chairman De Silva said: " Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne, 62 years ago to be precise, started the Sarvodaya Movement. Midstream, he realised empowering the villages through economic intervention was extremely valuable and required in the process of development. Thus, he started SEEDS. SEEDS, which is Sarvodaya Economic Enterprise Development Services, was started 32 years ago with a single-minded purpose to empower the villages and he did it with Rs. 100,000. Today the Rs. 100,000 book has grown to be exceeding Rs. 9 billion.”

“We still travel with the single-minded pursuit of empowering the villagers. We are going to be very unique in the space that we operate, in the microfinance space in the villages and in the 5,300 villages we operate, which we want to expand further. We are certainly the most reasonable lender in the villages. We want to be the most valuable lender in the villages. Microfinance is a big business for others. For us, we are empowering people in our journey. While doing good, we will do well.”

“The second aspect is that every rupee Sarvodaya gets will go into empowering the villages. This year alone we have committed and deployed over Rs. 1 billion to village development. Prior to this, the last 10 years, Sarvodaya deployed Rs. 6.5 million into village development activities. Thus, all the dividends and other things that they will get through this initiative will go straight into village development. So, we can all be happy 50% and more owners are putting all the dividends they get into village development, and we will empower the villagers. So, it's a unique flavour we bring into the market,” De Silva added.