Kelsey for sale

Kelsey Developments PLC, a unit of Dunamis Capital is for sale, according to sources close to the company.

" It is the holding company of Kelsey Homes Ltd which provides overall housing solutions and Kelsey Property Developers ( Pvt) Ltd which is primarily engaged in the business of land sales," a source told the Business Times. He said that it's been in the market for sometime and the owners – the Schaffter family ( who also owns Janashakthi) - wants to sell the entire ( some 80 per cent) stake. “They want to sell it as it doesn’t correspond to their core business in financial industry,” he added.

In its last annual report Dinesh Schaffter, Managing Director of the company has said that its operational performance showed some improvement in comparison to the previous year but was not as substantial as had been expected. " Sales revenue for the year was Rs. 164.6 million com- pared to Rs. 165.8 million in the previous year whilst Gross Profit at Rs. 38.8 million was an improvement compared to the previous year’s Gross Profit of Rs. 19.4 million.”

He has said that reported revenue included Rs. 8.4 million commission income on the sale of Riverside, a project in Boralesgamuwa. "Sale of quoted share investment contributed Rs.14.4 million to profits. Operational profit before finance activities was Rs. 7.5 million against last year’s loss of Rs. 12 million. Net reported loss for the year however was Rs. 18 million compared to Rs. 11.5 million in the previous year,” he has said.

Finance costs of Rs. 26 million were incurred during the year compared to Rs. 2.9 million in the previous year. “The bulk of this cost related to an increased interest burden resulting from holding a property in Nuwara Eliya which was purchased at a cost of Rs. 240 million," Mr. Schaffter has said. ( DEC) .