Guardian Group buys 16% stake in Hayleys MGT for Rs. 282 m

Carson Cumberbatch’s Guardian Investments Group yesterday bought a 16% stake in Hayleys MGT Knitting Mills Plc (MGT) for Rs. 282 million.
MGT saw a total of 31.05 million shares traded for Rs. 387.5 million. Of that volume 22.6 million was done via two crossings at Rs. 12.50 each.
Guardian is believed to have picked up the stake via the crossings whilst the rest had been retail activity.
Analysts noted Guardian’s entry is likely to be investment and trading purpose and not strategic.
Hayleys Plc owns a 78.5% stake in MGT whilst several other Group entity also holds some stakes. Analysts believe institutional and high net worth investors to have been on the selling side.
Deals on MGT accounted for 36% of the day’s turnover of Rs. 1.08 billion at the Colombo stock market yesterday. MGT closed Rs. 1.20 or 10.7% up to Rs. 12.40.
Last week MGT announced a 4 for 11 Rights Issue at Rs. 9.50 per share to raise Rs. 526 million to further improve the company’s financial health.
The company said funds will be utilised to strengthen the company’s financial position by retiring debt. MGT as at 31 March 2014 had Rs. 1.98 billion in interest bearing short term loans, up from Rs. 1.58 billion a year earlier. Net asset per share is Rs. 9.27.
In mid-2012, MGT raised Rs. 914 million via a 2 for one Rights at Rs. 9 per share to use Rs. 850 million to strengthen the Balance Sheet. Balance funds were to be used for an ERP system and energy saving initiatives.
Hayleys Plc holds 78.5% whilst among other shareholders are EPF (2.67%), and MAS Holdings (2%).
Retained loss was Rs. 1.2 billion as the company was impacted by a fraud in 2010/11 financial year. The company suffered a Rs. 873 million loss in FY12 and Rs. 799 million loss in FY11.
In FY14, net loss was Rs. 183 million, down from Rs. 479 million in the previous year. Revenue grew by 39% to Rs. 8 billion in FY14.