Damro Group believed to have cut holding in Agalawatte Plantations to comply with public float rules

Damro Group, the controlling shareholder of Agalawatte Plantations PLC (AGAL) believed to have reduced its controlling stake in the company to meet the minimum public holding requirement under the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) Listing Rules.

Little over 25 million AGAL shares accounting for 16.2 percent changed hands in 3, 055 trades at a price range of Rs.30-36 per share on November 3. 

However, there were no crossings, with the largest trade being one million shares at Rs.30 per share.  AGAL shares started trading at Rs.34.50 on the day and rose to a high of Rs.36 within the first hour, before falling sharply to Rs.30 per a share on heavy volumes later in the day.

At market closure, the share price declined by Rs.2.60 or 7.74 percent to Rs.31 with the total turnover being recorded at Rs.786.944 million. 

As of 30th of September this year, the public shareholding of the company was at 6.80 percent, which was held by 11,543 public shareholders, and the float adjusted market capitalisation was recorded at 
Rs.292.13 million. 

AGAL in a recent stock filing noted that its holding company is willing to reduce its ownership stake in the company to meet the minimum public 
holding requirement.

As of September 30, 2021, D.R. Investments (Pvt.) Ltd, the investment vehicle belonging to Damro Group held 93.20 percent stake in AGAL followed by 2.28 percent and 1.58 percent stakes by Sonia Win-Yen Yang and Dr. T. Senthilverl respectively.