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AN IMPORTANT YEAR ON THE MARKET |
Sri Lanka Telecom had a significant year on the market. On 2 April, the Company was the subject of the largest single transaction ever to take place on the Colombo Stock Exchange when NTT Corp, then SLT’s second-largest shareholder, sold the entirety of its 35.2% holding to Global Telecommunications Holdings (GTH) N.V. A total
of 635 million shares were transferred at a price of Rs. 50.50 per share. GTH is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Usaha Tegas Sdn. Bhd., which also owns Maxis Communications Bhd., a leading telecommunications provider based in Malaysia and operating in that country as well as in India and Indonesia.
Following news that the proposed transaction had been approved by the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, energetic trading in SLT shares commenced in early March 2008 (see share price chart). This was largely fuelled by anticipation of the mandatory offer to other shareholders that is dictated by CSE rules in the event of a single buyer purchasing a stake of more than 30% in a listed company. This phase of activity continued after the GTH’s purchase of NTT’s stake on 2 April, subsiding only after the offer lapsed on 2 June.
Following the mandatory offer, GTH acquired a further 5.22% of SLT in transactions with individual shareholders. This had the effect of reducing the ‘free float’, or regularly-traded volume of SLT shares on the Colombo Stock Exchange, from over 15% of total equity to around 5%.
The Government of Sri Lanka, SLT’s largest shareholder and its associated institutions, declined GTH’s mandatory offer as expected and collectively retained over 50% holding in the Company.
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2008 |
| Issued Share Capital |
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1,804,860,000 |
Less:Holding over 10%
Secretary to the Treasury |
893,405,709 |
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Global Telecommunications
Holdings N.V |
811,757,869
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(1,705,163,578) |
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99,696,422 |
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Trading Activity, Year-on-Year
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2008 |
2007 |
| No. of transactions |
16,473 |
28,350 |
| No. of Share traded |
901,856,789 |
157,119,304 |
| Value of Shares traded (Rs.) |
43,850,830,079 |
5,604,532,534 |
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