Sri Lanka Janashakthi Insurance to sell 16.5mln shares at Rs12

Mar 27, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka's Janashakthi Insurance is planning to sell 16.5 million shares priced at 12 rupees a share through an initial public offer to raise 198 million rupees, an official said. . The company has called a special meeting of its existing shareholders this Friday seeking approval to start the public issue process, director Ramesh Schaffter said.

Janashakthi may also sell a further tranche of 16.5 million shares, which is 5 percent of the company, if there is demand, he said.

The company now had 330 million shares in issue. By December 2007 Janashakthi had shareholders' funds of 1.69 billion rupees and gross assets of 9.6 billion rupees.

"We believe that notwithstanding economic conditions that are prevailing, it is appropriate to get a listing by way of an IPO," Janashakthi chairman W T Ellawala told reporters Thursday.

The company's gross written premium increased 17 percent to 4,884.2 million rupees in 2007 from 4,161 million and net underwriting profits were 980.4 million rupees, up from 808 million rupees in 2006.

Ellawala said the company had reached the position of the third largest general insurer in Sri Lanka after 13 years of operations and had g