Sunshine Holdings in private placement deal with SBI to cut debt

Sunshine Holdings PLC said yesterday its board of directors resolved to raise Rs.775 million through a private placement deal with SBI Ven Holdings (Pte) Limited, which already holds a 10.99 percent stake in Sunshine as the third largest shareholder.

To this end the board has resolved to issue 11.9 million ordinary Sunshine shares to SBI Ven Holdings at a price of Rs.65 per share, subject to shareholder and Colombo Stock Exchange approval for the listing of such shares. Sunshine said the money is raised to reduce bank borrowings and finance costs. As at December 31, 2017, Sunshine had over Rs.1.5 billion loans and borrowings under current liabilities and Rs.2.5 billion under bank overdrafts. The firm will call an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders to seek approval for the placement.

SBI Ven Holdings acquired 10.99 percent in Sunshine in a Rs.742.5 million deal in April, last year, paying Rs.50 a share.

SBI Ven Holdings Private Limited is an investment holding company of Japan’s SBI Holdings Inc., one of Japan’s biggest PE firms with assets under management in excess of US $ 3billion. SBI Ven Holdings also have investments in Sri Lanka’s National Development Bank PLC (NDB) and LB Finance PLC. The shareholder structure of Sunshine underwent significant changes last year with the ownership getting concentrated among a few strategic partners.