Finco divests Orient Garments control

Tuesday, 2 August 2011 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Finco, a low profile midsize business group yesterday exited from Orient Garments Ltd., handing over control to PC House owner S.H.M. Rishan.

Around 30.16 million shares amounting to 55% stake of Orient Garments changed hands via 476 trades for Rs. 667 million. Its intra-day high was Rs. 37.40 and lowest was Rs. 21.50 before closing at Rs. 21.80, down by Rs. 12.80 or 37%.

This movement perhaps fuelled reasons for Orient Garments to be slapped with a 10% price band by the SEC.

Be that as it may, the bulk of the selling yesterday was by Finco and connected parties.

Prior to listing Finco and connected parties held nearly 90% stake in Orient Garments and on its debut it sold 20% stake. Among buyers of that stake were high networth investor Dr. T. Senthilverl who acquired 16.5% or 9 million shares at Rs. 28 each. Finco is estimated be holding around 15% stake in Orient Garments.

The buyer Rishan had made good use of the near Rs. 900 million he obtained from the sale of 3.4% of Brown and Company stake last week by investing in Orient Garments.

Finco Group enjoys the ownership of a series of modern self contained factory units, established under OGL and its subsidiaries namely Stafford Orient (Pvt) Limited and Priority Garments (Pvt) Limited.

The business focus of OGL Group is predominantly aimed at designing, manufacturing and selling a wide range of garments catering to the needs of leading international fashion brands and retailers such as NEXT, Tesco, Tommy Hilfiger, Polo Ralph Lauren and Burberry.

The infrastructure of the Group consists of five garment manufacturing plants accounting for a total of near 1,500 direct sewing machines, 2 embroidery units with 105 embroidery sewing heads, and an employment base of nearly 3,500 personnel.