National Development Bank PLC (NDB) yesterday said a strategic investor is currently carrying out a detailed evaluation of the bank as well as the current market conditions with a view to investing in the unsubscribed shares arising from the rights issue that was closed in October.

The NDB board decided on June 19, 2018 to issue 59.15 million new ordinary voting shares through a rights issue priced at Rs.105 a share, in the proportion of one new share for every three shares already held.

Although at the time of the announcement of the rights issue by NDB in June, the share price was higher than the rights price, by September, when the EGM was held to seek the shareholder approval for the rights issue, the NDB share price had come down to slightly over the rights price of Rs.105.

As a result, certain shareholders didn’t subscribe to the rights entitled to them while some shareholders couldn’t subscribe to theirs due to the single shareholder restriction under the Banking Act.

As at September 30, 2018, approximately 60 percent of the rights had been subscribed, NDB said in its third quarter interim financial accounts for this year.

Meanwhile, this Tuesday, NDB announced the purchase of 12,624 shares of the bank by M.J.F. Holdings, at Rs.105 per share, under a director dealings disclosure. 

Malik Fernando, the spouse of NDB Non-Executive Director Kimarly Fernando, effectively holds more than 10 percent of shares of M.J.F. Holdings.

As at September 30, 2018, Bank of Ceylon had a 9.91 percent stake in NDB, while the Employees’ Provident Fund being the second single largest shareholder had a 9.69 percent stake.

State-run Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation had a stake of almost 10.5 percent, under its life and general funds.

High-net-worth investors Rusi Captain, Dr. Sena Yaddehige and NDB Deputy Chairman Ashok Pathirage also had sizeable stakes in the bank, while the controversial Perpetual Group had 5.74 percent holding.