Maharaja Foods to become first women-led enterprise with Northern origins to be listed on CSE

From left: Atarah Capital (Pvt.) Ltd Head of Investment Banking Chandana Wijesundara, Independent Non-Executive Director Melanga A. Doolwala, Chairman/Non-Independent Executive Director Vijayananth Guganathan, Non-Independent Executive Director Thavamalar Guganathan, Atarah Capital (Pvt.) Ltd Managing Director Rohan Senewiratne, Independent Non-Executive Director Imran Furkan and Managing Director/Non-Independent Executive Director Vithyanath Guganathan

By Nishel Fernando 
Maharaja Foods Limited (MFL), a leading manufacturer, exporter and a distributor of authentic Sri Lankan foods and groceries, is on the route to become the first women-owned enterprise with Northern origins to be listed on Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE).
The company plans to issue an offer for subscription of 25 million new ordinary voting shares, amounting to approximately 20 percent post-initial public offering (IPO), at an offer price of Rs.5 per share, to raise Rs.125 million. The offer is scheduled to be opened on July 4, this year.
The share issue price is with a discount of 14.6 percent to the value per share derived using the selected peer entities’ PER multiples and 1.8 percent premium to the value derived based on the DCF method.

The CSE has approved, in-principle, the application submitted by Maharaja Foods Limited, for the listing of its ordinary voting shares by way of an offer for subscription on the Empower Board of the CSE. 
Founded by the visionary entrepreneur, the late Sivasaraman Guganathan from Velani-Jaffna, the Maharaja Food Products brand was launched in 1995, supplying premium quality food items such as rice, potatoes, onions and lentils, etc., which were sourced from the local farmers. 
After the demise of the late Guganathan in 2016, his spouse Thavamalar Guganathan took over the leadership, thus the company became a women-owned enterprise.
“After the demise of my husband in 2016, I was determined to continue his vision for the company, with the support of my sons. I am delighted that within a period of eight years under my leadership, we were able to upscale the corporate governance structures and finance governance best practices to a level that MFPE met the eligibility criteria for a listing on the CSE,” Guganathan told reporters in Colombo yesterday. 
Maharaja Foods Limited, which was serving both local and export markets, made a strategic move in 2022 to exclusively focus on exports, therefore the local distribution was assigned to its fully-owned subsidiary Maharaja Marketing (Pvt.) Limited, which was incorporated in 2022.
In FY 23/24, export revenue in US dollar terms reached the US $ 1 million mark, which is a 138 percent increase compared to US $ 0.42 million in FY 22/23. This was driven by growth overall sales volumes. Meanwhile, the net profit margin improved from 2 percent YoY in FY 21/22 to 7 percent YoY in FY 22/23 and this was further increased to 9.2 percent YoY in FY 23/24.
Having commenced trading during FY 22/23 after incorporation, Maharaja Marketing (Pvt.) Limited (MML) continued the distribution of food products in the local market, which was earlier carried out by MFL. During FY 22/23, which is the first year of operations, MML recorded Rs.130 million in revenue, with the 6 percent gross profit (GP) margin. During FY 23/24, MML managed to increase the total revenue to Rs.179.7 million, registering a 37 percent YoY growth and increasing the GP margin to 8.4 percent.