Chrissworld Limited will become the first SME Company in Sri Lanka to obtain regulatory approval for a listing on the Colombo Stock Exchange.
This is happening after 100 years since the establishment of the Stock Exchange in Sri Lanka. Chrissworld Limited entered the history books on March 26 where a company classified under the category of SME obtained regulatory approval for a listing in the Colombo Stock Exchange SME Empower Board.
“We now hope to raise Rs. 56.2 million from this IPO releasing 25% of our sharers to the public,” said Chrisslogix Pvt. Ltd, Chairman and Managing Director, Christopher Perera.
He said that they prefer raising capital through IPO rather than taking bank loans which needs more collateral and other higher interest and other complications. “We also feel being listed gives us a better brand identity.”
Chrisslogix offers a wide range of services in warehouse management and we hope to use funds raised from the IPO towards the expansion of our warehouse, new wracking system and also to install more ICT based solutions to it. “In addition we also want to expand our delivery and offer service up to the customer’s doorstep for which we also hope to purchase new vehicles.”
He said that the logistic business is a viable investment as it did not ‘suffer’ even during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We also see more demand for warehousing and will also look at investing in them with entrepreneurs on a BOT basis especially in Hambantota and North East areas.”
Founder/Managing Director, Atarah Capital Partners (Pvt) Ltd Rohan Senewiratne the ‘Managers to the Issue’ of the upcoming historical IPO said that they have two more similar IPO launches for this year awaiting approvals.
“Most of the companies find it more suitable to raise capital via tools of this nature rather than using the traditional way of raising capital through banks. Few years ago, no one would have thought that an SME company could get CSE approval for a listing. The dominance of banks and finance companies as the sole provider of capital for the SMEs is thus broken, and the alternative of listed equity capital is now a great option for Sri Lankan SMEs to consider in the future.
“After the listing of Chissworld is completed (during the Month of May 2021) and launching of the new Empower Board of the CSE, I firmly believe many other SMEs would also reach investment banks to consider the alternative funding option of listed equity.”
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“Cargo shipping becomes more expensive”
The shipping and moving of cargo has become more ‘expensive’ Chrisslogix Pvt. Ltd, Chairman and Managing Director, Christopher Perera said.
He said they see an overall 30% increase in the freight forwarding business. He however said that they don’t experience any major delays in shipping ‘orders’ being delivered to Colombo from most of the countries except China. He said that when cargo is shipped from China slight delays are experienced since priority is given to shipments to India as there is an increase of trade between the two nations.
