Chrissworld Limited (CWL-N-0000) rang the market opening bell yesterday, May 18, to commence trading on the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) at the first ever fully Virtual Market Opening Ceremony organized by the CSE. The company listed 30,000,000 Ordinary Voting Shares and has been classified under ‘Industrials’ sector.
Chrissworld Limited is the first company to be listed on the Empower Board of the CSE and the listing is followed after a successful Initial Public Offering (IPO) held on April 27, 2021. The IPO was oversubscribed on the first day itself and raised Rs. 56.25 Million.
Christo Perera – Chairman of Chrissworld Limited, Rohan Senewiratne – Managing Director of Atarah Capital Partners (PVT) Ltd, Viraj Dayaratne PC – Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka (SEC) and Dumith Fernando- Chairman of the CSE spoke at the event.
The Chairman of the SEC, Viraj Dayaratne speaking at the event said, “Ability to raise capital is very important for the success of a company and Start-ups and SMEs have found this to be the most difficult task. We at the SEC and the CSE realized that it was necessary for us to give them, this much needed support. That is why the Empower Board was created to enable SMEs to list on the CSE. Chrissworld Limited has now given leadership to all the SMEs and startups to make use of the host of benefits that are available and I congratulate them for taking this initiative”.
“I would like to call upon all entrepreneurs in the country to make use of this opportunity. We have made it easy for companies to list on the Dirisavi Board and the Main Board. Processes have been streamlined and listings are now handled solely by the CSE in order to make it more efficient and less cumbersome. So it is our endeavor to ensure that businesses find the right environment and the facilities to develop their businesses,” he also said.
The Chairman of the CSE, Dumith Fernando congratulated the company on achieving the milestone of a public listing and being a pioneer in drawing more companies to the Empower Board.
“This listing is a milestone for CSE as well as for Chrissworld Limited. We launched the Empower Board, another Board for listing on the CSE several years ago. The Empower Board was specifically tailored for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to list on the CSE. SMEs are the bedrock of our economy and they are predominant majority of the number of companies in the country, and they employ almost half of the staff working in the corporate world,” Chairman of the CSE sadi.
“These are the growth engines of our economy. The ability to provide another avenue for them to seek growth capital, raise their corporate profile and establish better governance processes are all part of the objectives of the Empower Board. We are honored that Chrisssworld Limited, a strong logistics company that is profitable with a 10 year track record behind it to support, is going to be the first listing on the Empower Board,” he also said.
Chairman of Chrissworld Limited, Christo Perera shared insight on the company’s perspective, stating, “We had a successful conclusion of our IPO with a decent oversubscription. I wish to thank all the investors for the confidence, trust and the belief that you have had with Chrissworld Limited and our team. As an SME, we are thankful that we have been given the opportunity to list and go public. It is an opportunity we should not miss. We are happy that we were able to get funds from the public and use them for the development and the progress of the company. We have many plans for the growth of the company. We feel that logistics industry is a high potential industry and wish to harness the same potential”.
Speaking at the event Managing Director of Atarah Capital Partners (PVT) Ltd., Rohan Senewiratne noted, “SEC and CSE has done a great job to bring about the Empower Board. In the history of 100 years of Capital Market in Sri Lanka, we haven’t had a platform to list a SME and now we do. We congratulate Chrissworld Limited for getting there as the first company to be listed on the Empower board”.
Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE):
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