Brandix ups holding in Textured Jersey

Textile giant Brandix Lanka has marginally increased its shareholding in weft knit fabric manufacturer Textured Jersey Lanka (TJL) PLC by 1.25 percent through several deals on the Colombo bourse. It acquired 6.53 million shares from Jacob BAC Ltd, 1.46 million shares from Compagnie Maurienne de Textile Ltee and 748,449 shares from Pioneer Elastic Holdings Ltd, at a consideration of Rs.30.80 per share. Brandix also transferred 26.47 million of TJL shares it received from a share swap to a subsidiary at the same price.

TJL had issued a total of 35.2 million shares to the above three companies and to Brandix in January, under a share swap arrangement, as a partial payment for buying out Ocean Mauritius Limited.Ocean Mauritius owns Ocean India (Private) Limited, which operates a knit fabric manufacturing operation in Visakahpatnam, India. TJL acquired 35.63 million shares in Ocean Mauritius for US $ 15 million and paid US $ 7.5 million of it in cash and agreed to pay the rest through a share swap. Brandix, which owned 29.81 percent of the shares in TJL in early January, increased its shareholding to 32.11 percent following the share swap. It now holds 33.25 percent of the shares in TJL. As at December 31, 2015, Pacific Textured Jersey Holdings Limited held 29.65 percent of TJL, while First State Investments lcvc, as the third largest shareholder, held 7.14 percent.