Acme Printing and Packaging PLC (APPP), riding high in the packaging market segment in Sri Lanka, is now in the process of completing an experiment of a bio-degradable foil packaging product that the company plans to put to the market soon.
APPP Chairman Dinal Peiris said the research in this regard involves highly meticulous processes, but he assured that they are almost complete. Stringent intricacies such as the discolouring, degradation commencing while the packaged product is in the shelf, have been met with, he said adding that the company has a good research laboratory where it has conducted successful experiments on the product.
APPP is a public quoted company established in 1949 and is the largest manufacturer of flexible packaging and only manufacturer of aluminum foil based packaging in Sri Lanka. The company recently announced a restructuring of the company’s equity to the Colombo Stock Exchange.
In this regard APPP has announced a rights issue ending August 20 for Rs 250 million and Mr Peiris said that they expect the issue will be oversubscribed.
Mr Peiris said that they have a huge demand locally and overseas but unable to meet the total demand due to the high interest rates they are paying. The new funds from the rights issue will overcome these issues, he said.
He said that they were paying interest at the rate of 21% while the present market rate is around 12 to 13%. He said that as a result of the restructuring the equity the company is expected to improve profits and would be able to offer its shareholders a better dividend in the future.
Mr Peiris said that the difficulties they encounter is due to one single shareholder controlling 85% of the shares. He said that equity would be restructured in such a way that a major portion of these shares would be sold to the public.
Speaking to Business Times Mr Peiris said that there is enormous potential for export and they would be able to meet the spiralling local demand when they are able to manufacture them quickly and in sufficient quantities. He said that they are already exporting to Pakistan. |
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