The Singer Finance IPO has been subscribed by over a massive 120 times, setting a new record in terms of the level of oversubscriptions in an IPO in Sri Lanka, said, NDB Investment Bank (NDBIB), the Managers to the Issue. This is the highest ever oversubscription in an IPO in the country, claims NDBIB and is the first time that the level of oversubscription exceeded the 100 times mark.

The issue which opened at 9.30 a.m. on the 15th of December closed within few moments on the same day as announced by S S P Corporate Services, the Registrar to the Issue. The applications are estimated to be over 21,000 with the Registrars still processing at the time of this release.

Mr. Hemaka Amarasuriya, the Chairman of Singer Finance said, “The overwhelming response to the Singer Finance IPO shows the trust and the confidence placed by the investing public towards the Singer Group and I personally take this opportunity to thank all investors for their support to make this one of the most successful IPOs in the history of the Colombo Stock Exchange”.

“We are privileged to have worked with the Singer Group and play an active role in this record breaking effort which adds to the other records created in the capital market of Sri Lanka by NDBIB through previous IPOs handled by us”, said, Mr. Vajira Kulatilaka, CEO of the Investment Banking Cluster of the NDB Group.

Mr. Darshan Perera, CEO of NDBIB stated “The keen interest shown by the investors from the launch of the IPO itself helped the issue to be oversubscribed to this level. With this level of oversubscription the challenge would be to decide on a fair and equitable basis of allotment, where all categories of investors are taken care of”.      

The IPO was to raise approximately Rs. 400 million through the issue of 26,666,667 shares to the employees and the general public. The company intends to list the shares on the Colombo Stock Exchange by mid January 2011.