Higher Stake

Oct 15, 2007 (LBO) – People's Merchant Bank (PMB) shares shot up 15.50 rupees to 55 rupees in Monday morning trading on the Colombo bourse as the firm said that Lanka Orix Leasing Company had increased its stake in the company. PMB said in a statement to the Colombo Stock Exchange that its share price moved up to 39.25 from 31.75 rupees with 3,739, 853 shares being traded on Friday.

It said a "significant transaction" occurred during trading, when R. M. Nanayakkara sold a stake of 12.04 percent of PMB (3,010,753 shares) to LOLC.

On Monday morning, PMB's share price rose to 55 rupees with over 900,000 shares changing hands and accounting for 29 percent of the trading volume at the time.

PMB announced last week that Lanka Orix Leasing Company had bought 7.8 percent of the bank, Galleon International Master fund SPC had bought 11 percent and Lionhart Investments 10 percent.

Those shares were bought from DPMC Financial Services, owned by the David Peiris Motor group, which sold a stake of 29.27 percent or 7,317,000 shares.

The Nanayakkara family which owns LOLC already had a 12 percent stake in PMB at the time of last week's transactions.

Peoples' Bank has 39.2 percent of Peoples' Merchant while a co