PAP sees share purchases by directors/ shareholders

Panasian Power PLC (PAP), a renewable energy firm, saw strong trading activity on Thursday, fuelling speculation of a takeover of the company.

PAP has 625 million shares in issue with no single controlling shareholder and in the past it was a lucrative firm to control. The main shareholder (24 per cent) and Director, D. Jinadasa bought 1.89 billion shares in the market and so did another PAP Director, Dr. T. Senthilverl (who owns 19.44 per cent) with 37 million shares - on Thursday and Wednesday, according to the Colombo bourse announcements.

PAP added 5 MW (megawatts) of solar capacity to the grid during this financial year and has another 9 MW in the immediate pipeline. “We have secured our first retail contract, being the exclusive channel partner to Sungrow Inverters, a leading brand in the industry," PAP Executive Director, Pathmanatha Poddiwala, mentioned in his quarterly statement recently.

He added that PAP’s overseas diversification strategy continues with a 10MW hydro plant in Zambia undergoing feasibility studies and they have identified a number of projects in East Africa and South Asia that we are actively reviewing.

As we close out the year, we achieved a 12-times increase in solar revenue for the full year.”

The group solar revenue increased by 745 per cent compared to the same quarter last year with 5 MW of solar capacity added to the grid.

PAP continued investment in its solar portfolio with a 4 MW rooftop solar to be commissioned in the early part of next year ending March 31 2021 (FY21) and there are projects identified in Kenya, Nigeria and Laos being reviewed last year. “We also saw a decrease in rainfall which resulted in a lower than expected hydro revenue which we expect to improve in FY21,” Mr. Poddiwala said.