Kapruka Holdings debuts trading on CSE

From left: Kapruka Holdings Limited General Manager Suresh Eranda, Acuity Partners (Pvt.) Limited Consultant Corporate Finance Avanthi Dissanyake, Acuity Partners (Pvt.) Limited Managing Director and CSE Director Ray Abeywardena, Kapruka Holdings Limited Director Anuradha Herath, Kapruka Holdings Limited Chairman and CEO Dulith Herath, CSE Chairman Dumith Fernando, CSE Director Jayantha Fernando, Acuity Partners (Pvt.) Limited Director Research Shehan Cooray, Acuity Partners (Pvt.) Limited Associate Corporate Finance Hansinee Beddage and  CSE CEO Rajeeva Bandaranaike

The shares of Kapruka Holdings Limited (CODE: KPHL-N-0000) commenced trading on the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) yesterday. 

The shares have been listed on the Main Board of the CSE under the ‘Retailing’ sector. The occasion was marked with a special Bell 
Ringing Ceremony.

Kapruka share closed at Rs22.30 yesterday, up Rs.6.90 or 44.81 percent from the offer price of Rs.15.40.
Representing Kapruka Holdings Limited, 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 (Pvt.) Limited Managing Director and CSE Director Ray Abeywardena, Director Research Shehan Cooray, Associate Corporate Finance Hansinee Beddage and Consultant Corporate Finance Avanthi Dissanyake represented the event. 

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, Fernando congratulated Kapruka Holdings on its initiative to go public and the company’s 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 Limited. 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, Herath commented, “Twenty years ago, I managed to get the Kapruk.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 percent of the shares are owned by me and 20 percent 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 investor 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 burrow and option three was to go public with the CSE and I picked option three.”

Kapruka Holdings Limited is Sri Lanka’s pioneer e-commerce enterprise that was founded in 2002. The company provides a highly profitable, unique and differentiated non-marketplace e-commerce business model with in-house last mile delivery, serving both local and expatriate Sri Lankan clientele.