Share option bonanza for JKH executive directors

Mr. Susantha Ratnayake, Chairman of John Keells Holding, Mr. Ajit Gunawardene, Deputy Chairman and Mr. Ronnie Peiris, Finance Director have last week disposed of substantial shareholdings in the company and utilized the cash raised to exercise their rights under the company’s Employees Share Option Scheme.

All disposals have been at a price of Rs. 244 per share on Nov. 26 while the share options had been exercised the same day at Rs. 127.50.

Mr. Ratnayake has disposed 468,000 shares, Mr. Gunawardene 330,000 shares and Mr. Peiris 50,000 shares. Mr. Ratnayake had purchased 628,430 shares, Mr. Gunawardene 549,876 shares and Mr. Peiris 426,707 shares.

These details have been disclosed to the Colombo Stock Exchange under the requirement of the dealings in shares by directors of listed companies.

Executive directors of JKH are substantial shareholders of the company although they are not listed among the top 20 shareholders. According to the last quarterly financials of JKH, Ratnayake owned 5,839,930 shares of JKH as at Sept. 30, 2014, Gunawardene 7,079,022 shares and Peiris 1,332,375.

Analysts said that JKH’s executive directors are substantial beneficiaries of the company’s share option sheme issued for exercise at a future date at a determined price. They are cancelled if not exercised by that date.

"The beneficiary has the opportunity of exercising the options at times when the market price of the share is ahead of the option price and the added benefit of selling a portion of their existing shareholding in the company to raise the cash to exercise their options. Almost inevitably, in this way they can acquire many more shares than they have sold by the exercise of their options," an analyst explained.

"The share options are a major factor in the compensation package of executive directors and senior management."

Mr. S.E. Captain is the biggest single shareholder of JKH with the connected Paints and General Industries and his son, Rusi, listed among the top twenty shareholders of the company. The majority on this list are foreign funds. No serving executive directors are on this list although Mr. K. Balendra, a former chairman, is on it.
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Hunters sell Bankshall St.property for Rs. 253.5 mn.

Hunter and Co. PLC has disposed an undisclosed extent of Pettah land and buildings at Bankshall Street last week for Rs. 253.5 million, the company said in a Stock Exchange filing.

The land and buildings thereon that have been sold bore 17 assessment numbers. The filing did not include the extent of the land although the assessments numbers were disclosed.

Hunters is a company founded in the colonial period with its main business premises located in an imposing Pettah building and a branch operation on a sprawling site on T.B. Jayah Mawatha, previously Darley Road.
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Commercial Bank receives licence from Central Bank of Myanmar

Sri Lanka’s largest private bank seeks to emulate its success in Bangladesh with second overseas operation

The Commercial Bank has become the first Sri Lankan bank to be granted a licence by the Central Bank of Myanmar to operate a Representative Office in the South East Asian republic of more than 50 million people.

"We believe that there is further potential to increase bi-Iateral trade between Myanmar and Sri Lanka, and that there is a likelihood of some of Sri Lanka’s leading apparel exporters and other industries setting up operations in Myanmar," Commercial Bank’s Chairman Mr Dharma Dheerasinghe said. "The presence of a Representative Office of Sri Lanka’s largest private bank would facilitate this process, and be mutually beneficial to the two countries."

Commercial Bank’s Managing Director and CEO Mr Jegan Durairatnam said the Bank is in the process of planning out the services it will offer initially in Myanmar, as well as the timelines for setting up its Representative Office there. Commercial Bank envisages that its Representative Office will offer Advisory Services to Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi businessmen wishing to enter the Myanmar Market and arrange Banking and Advisory facilities and funds transfer and encashment services, subject to approval of the Central Bank of Myanmar.

"The Banking Sector in Myanmar is expanding fast" Mr Durairatnam added. "By opening a Representative Office, it would also be possible for Commercial Bank to build closer relationships with local banks and offer them its experience in very successfully moving from manual and mechanical systems to high-tech banking."

According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Myanmar could follow Asia’s fast growing economies and expand at 7-8% a year, become a middle income nation and triple per capita income by 2030.

Myanmar will be Commercial Bank’s second overseas operation after Bangladesh, which the Bank entered in July 2003, with the acquisition of the Bangladesh operations of Credit Agricole Indosuez (CAI), Commercial Bank’s first ever acquisition of a banking operation. Today, Commercial Bank’s operations in Bangladesh have grown to 18 outlets, and have won numerous awards including a CSR Award from The Bankers Forum in Bangladesh, the Financial Mirror - Robintex Business Award for outstanding performance, the Financial News Services (FNS) Business Award for the ‘Best Performing Foreign Bank’ in Bangladesh and the ICMAB, National Best Corporate Award.

Ranked the ‘Strongest Bank in Sri Lanka in 2014’ by The Asian Banker and the only Sri Lankan bank to be ranked among the Top 1000 banks of the world for four consecutive years, Commercial Bank is also the most valuable private sector brand in the country in 2014. Commercial Bank operates a network of 239 branches and 605 ATMs in Sri Lanka. The Bank has won multiple awards as Sri Lanka’s best bank over several years, was adjudged one of the country’s 10 best corporate citizens by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce in 2013 and has been rated the Most Respected Bank in Sri Lanka by LMD for the past 10 years. It has also been the second Most Respected Corporate entity in the country overall for the past four years in the LMD rankings, and has been rated NO 1 in Sri Lanka for Honesty in 2013 and 2014 by the Magazine.
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