Hela Apparel soon in Egypt

While globally expanding its footprint in a US$ 3 trillion apparel industry, Hela Apparel is to start a new manufacturing facility in Egypt in the next few weeks, said Hela Apparel Holdings, Group CEO, Dilanka Jinadasa during a media briefing held at the Galle Face Hotel in Colombo on Wednesday.

Mr. Jinadasa said, “Hela has a manufacturing footprint in across six countries with 11 manufacturing facilities while seven of them are based in Sri Lanka. We spread into East Africa in 2015 starting with Kenya and then expanded into Ethiopia, subsequently now moving into North Africa with Egypt which will kick off in the next few weeks.”

He added: “Egypt has the world’s best cotton which helps to produce very fine fabrics and the fact that it’s based in North Africa allows us access to Europe in a short time of 3-7 days while also giving access to the Eastern Coast of US within 12 days.”

Mr. Jinadasa also stated that the company is expecting to finish the financial year with revenue of US$ 270 million. “From an annual growth rate standpoint we have a growth of 11 per cent yearon-year. There is an 18,000 workforce across the six countries we operate in and most importantly we have a digital co-foundation through SAP.”

The Hela factory in Kenya with 5000 employees amounts to 19 per cent of Kenya’s apparel exports. Essentially one out of five garments shipped out of Kenya is from a Hela facility. The factory in Ethiopia has over 2000 employees producing over 1.5 million pieces per month, added Mr. Jinadasa.

Hela Apparel Holdings Ltd is set to offer 267,108,998 ordinary voting shares to the public at a price of Rs. 15.00 per share, through its IPO, which is scheduled to open on January 12. Jointly managed by CT CSLA and CAL, the issue aims to raise approximately Rs. 4 billion in equity capital from investors, through the sale of a 20.5 per cent stake in the company, which is expected to result in a market capitalisation of Rs. 19.5 billion.