Amana Takaful to float life biz through Rs.75mn IPO

Amana Takaful Life Limited (ATLT), the fully-owned subsidiary under the Amana Takaful PLC group, yesterday announced the opening of its Initial Public Offering (IPO) on July 21 to raise Rs.75 million by way of an offer for sale, a filing to the stock exchange said. ATLT is the first Lankan life insurer to announce an IPO post segregation of the insurance industry.

The company said it would offer 50 million ordinary voting shares at a price of Rs.1.50 a share but did not say the percentage offered to the public. The shares will be listed on the Diri Savi Board of the Colombo Stock Exchange. The minimum subscription has been set at 1,000 shares and multiples thereof. The financial advisor and manager to the offer is Acuity Partners (Pvt.) Limited and Amana Bank is the banker to the issue. Sri Lanka’s pioneering Takaful insurance solutions provider, the Amana Takaful PLC group spun off its life insurance business under a fully-owned subsidiary – ATLT – in January 2015 in response to the regulator’s call for business segregation. Once segregated, such business units were required to be listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange by early 2016, the regulator further said.

ATLT was initially funded through a rights issue, which raised Rs.400 million in late 2014. According to the latest financial data, the company has a stated capital of Rs.500 million. The company r e l e a s i n g a statement this May said it had made a profit of Rs.18 million for the year e n d e d December 31, 2015.

The company had also recorded a gross written premium (GWP) of Rs.928 million for the financial year ended December 31, 2015, marking a 35 percent growth year-on-year, which outperformed the industry growth of 20 percent. But the parent company Amana Takaful PLC made a net loss of Rs.30.3 million or loss per share of two cents for the quarter ended March 31, 2016. The group has operations in the Maldives through Amana Takaful Maldives PLC. As of March 31, 2016, Amana Holdings Limited held a 60.44 percent stake in the group followed by Amana Bank Limited and Expolanka Holdings PLC with 15.26 percent and 5.27 percent each.