Sampath Bank Rs.12.1bn rights issue undersubscribed

Sampath Bank PLC’s Rs.12.1 billion rights issue, which officially closed last Friday (June 7), was undersubscribed, the bank said in a stock exchange filing.

Sampath Bank offered 89 million shares at Rs.136 each in the proportion of seven new voting shares for every 23 held.

The bank yesterday said only 61.5 million rights (69 percent) were subscribed. The stock market filing said the bank’s board would be allotting the unsubscribed rights at its discretion to any person or persons.

Market sources told Mirror Business that high-net-worth investor and Sampath Bank’s second largest shareholder Indra Silva,

 who holds a 9.98 percent stake or 28 million shares of the bank, had not subscribed to his portion of rights.

Sampath Bank share yesterday closed at Rs.137.20, down 80 cents or 0.58 percent.

At the time the rights issue was announced on March 1, Sampath share was trading at Rs.230.90.

The rights issue was called by Sampath Bank to bolster its core capital, barely a year after it raised a similar amount in another rights issue.

Also, the call for fresh cash came roughly after two weeks it raised Rs.7 billion via a subordinated debenture issue.