Buying Access

Feb 29, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Access Engineering bought 60 percent of vehicle importer Sathosa Motors from Japan’s Itochu Corp.

for 846 million rupees paying 235 rupees a share, its chairman Sumal Perera said. “We believe there will be steady growth in the commercial vehicle and construction machinery business in the coming years.

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Access Engineering plans an initial public offer opening on March 6 of 20 million shares at 25 rupees each to raise 500 million rupees.

Perera said in June 2011, the firm raised 4.5 billion rupees in a private placement of shares at the same price.

The acquisition of Sathosa Motors would also provide Access Engineering access to the Sathosa Motor’s vehicle workshop, Perera said.

“There will also b synergies with the workshop.

We have increased our company’s plant and machinery and we need a very good workshop to maintain them.

Also, there is the Isuzu brand name.”

Perera said Itochu Corp wanted to exit from Sathosa Motors and selected Access after evaluating a few candidates.

“Itochu is a very large Japanese trading company.

They felt they needed a good local partner to go forward and focus on the business and after evaluating a few candidates they