Prime Lands acquires 75% of Summit Finance for Rs.510mn

Property and real estate developer, Prime Lands (Pvt.) Ltd, yesterday acquired 17 million shares or 75.54 percent of Summit Finance PLC held by Sarvodaya Development Finance Limited at a price of Rs.30 per share, aggregating to a total consideration of Rs.510 million. 
According to an earlier stock market disclosure, the Monetary Board of the Central Bank had approved the deal.Capital Trust Securities acted as the buyer’s broker for yesterday’s transaction. Prime Lands is expected to announce a mandatory offer for the remaining shares of Summit Finance soon since the transaction triggered the Securities and Exchange Commission Takeovers and Mergers Code.

As at September 30, 2016, the net asset value per share of Summit Finance stood at Rs.14.34. The total assets were Rs.1.43 billion. 
For the six months ended September 30, 2016, the company was able to narrow its losses by 82 percent year-on-year to Rs.3.5 million. 
The Prime Lands group already has experience in financial services as it operated the microfinance firm, Prime Grameen Micro Finance Ltd, of which the controlling shareholding was sold to Hatton National Bank PLC for a consideration of Rs.660 million in 2014.