The shares of Sarvodaya Development Finance Limited commenced trading on the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) on Wednesday.
The shares have been listed on the Main Board of the CSE under the ‘Consumer Finance’ sector. The occasion was marked with a Bell Ringing Ceremony
The listing follows a successful Initial Public Offering (IPO) by the company, through which it raised approximately Rs. 1 bn through a share issue of 45.45 million at an issue price of Rs. 22 each. The issue was a success with an oversubscription on the first day of its offer.
Chairman of Sarvodaya Development Finance Limited hanna De Silva, CEO of Sarvodaya Development Finance Nilantha Jayanetti, Chairman of Dollar Corporation Dr. Thirugnanasambandar Senthilverl, MD and Group Chief Executive Officer of Janashakthi Group, Ramesh Schaffter, Chairman of Sarvodaya Thalawila Society, Nimal Marasinghe and CEO of NDB Investment Bank Darshan Perera were present.
The CSE was represented by Chairman Dumith Fernando, Chief Executive Officer Rajeeva Bandaranaike and Chief Regulatory Officer Renuke Wijeyawardhane. .
Chairman of the CSE Dumith Fernando said, “The company has had an exceptional track record of growth over the last few years and has shown readiness to be a listed company as evidenced by its transparency and governance through its award winning annual reports as well.”
“Sarvodaya Development Finance Limited (SDF) which is part of the Sarvodaya Movement in Sri Lanka is the first impact investment opportunity to come to the public market. And we are confident that this will provide and investment opportunity for investors to participate in creating social and economic value across communities in Sri Lanka.
“Elevating and supporting SMEs, who play a dominant role in the Sri Lankan economy is also a key focus of CSE,” he said.
Chairman of Sarvodaya Development Finance Limited Channa De Silva said, “We travel with the single minded pursuit of empowering the villagers. We are going to be very unique in the space that we operate in, the microfinance space in the villages.
“We are certainly the most reasonable lender in the villages. We wish to be the most valuable lender in the villages. Microfinance is a big business for others. For us, we are empowering people in our journey, while doing good, we will do well.
“The second aspect is that every rupee Sarvodaya gets will go into empowering the villages. This year alone we have committed and deployed over a billion rupees to Village Development,” he said.