SG Holdings picks up few shares of Expo amidst market talk of ‘buy-back’

Controlling shareholder SG Holdings Global Ltd., has picked up small quantities of Expolanka Holdings shares so far in August at prices ranging from a low of Rs. 177 and a high of Rs. 210.

The total quantity was 0.35 million shares whilst Expolanka has 1.95 billion shares in issue.

SG Holdings owns 1.478 billion shares or 75.62%.

Though an insignificant quantity, it was the first time SG has picked up shares from retailers. The move comes amidst market talk that SG was planning to make a formal buy-back offer, which was one of the reasons for Expo shares to gain sharply in August by 28% or nearly Rs. 50. On Wednesday, it closed at Rs.225 up from Rs. 175.25 at the end of July.

The most profitable listed company in Sri Lanka, Expolanka in June surprised investors and shareholders with an interim dividend of Rs. 8.19 per share.

Backed by strong strategy execution and focus on fundamentals, Expolanka Holdings in 1Q achieved a revenue of Rs. 235.1 billion (YoY +146%), a Gross Profit of 36.9 billion (YoY +156%) and a Profit after tax of Rs. 20.1 billion (YoY +220%).

In FY22, Expolanka achieved revenues of Rs. 694 billion up 217% from the previous year and Rs. 73 billion profit up by 389%.