Anilana’s inflated pricing catches up
Anilana Hotels and Properties PLC (Anilana) which has negotiated with Sampath Bank PLC on a repayment schedule to settle its dues some time ago found its public offer application rejected by the authorities, informed sources said.
The company whose Initial Public Offering (IPO) was rejected by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2012 (during the now SEC Chairman Thilak Karunaratne’s earlier tenure in the same capacity) ultimately managed to raise Rs. 486.6 million after the application was approved during the then SEC Chairman Nalaka Godahewa’s time in 2013.
The SEC rejected Anilana’s IPO after accounting watchdog Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Monitoring Board (SLAASMB) which monitors company financial statements revealed how inflated Anilana’s balance sheet was that it led to their IPO application being rejected, SEC sources told the Business Times.
These are part of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and SLAASMB was concerned by IFRS 13 which relates to fair value measurements, the source added.
Anilana’s IPO application had re-valued property at a substantial valuation. SLAASMB, after consulting the Chief Valuer didn’t accept Anilana’s argument that these are the correct estimates as they had bought these lands at a cheap price during the war and now their value had escalated SLAASMB told the SEC not to allow the IPO to proceed.
Defying all this, the IPO was granted the green light a year later and the company is now submerged in debt.
Anilana said that they will settle their overdue portion of the credit facilities at Sampath with an initial lump sum payment and made settlements in two installment on 5th and 9th May 2017 while promising remainder of the overdue balance on or before 31st July 2017.
The company was targeting largely up-market traveller segment with plans to become the leading hotelier in the East Coast.
Anilana in a stock announcement on Monday said the directors already made arrangements to settle Sampath Bank PLC on or before next month end, but didn’t reveal the action plan.
Sampath had published four notices on their Board resolutions to auction mortgaged property in a national daily mid this month – two pertaining to Anilana alone and two regarding Anilana and Eastern Development Enterprises (Pvt) Ltd.
Values of defaulted credit facilities as at February, the notice said amounted to a total of Rs. 1.323 billion, Rs. 404 million, Rs. 130 million, Rs. 744 million and Rs. 45 million.
The firm whose principal activity is developing hotels and properties and has mortgaged land is in Nilaveli, Passikudah and Vakarai.
Last year Dhammika Perera, businessmen and entrepreneur, was trying to buy Anilana’s Trincomalee Property, but the deal full through after the price quoted was too high. The Anilana team wasn’t available for comment.