P.C. House Holdings and its Chairman S.H.M. Rishan have bought 51% of Finco Group’s Orient Garments (OGL) for nearly Rs.600 million yesterday. The sellers were believed to be Finco group lead subsidiaries and the transaction was completed around 1.43 p.m. whilst over 28.5 million shares of OGL crossed at Rs.21.50 in several blocks.

Speaking to Mirror Business S.H.M. Rishan said that he and his group personally bought the 51% of OGL, in a bid to expand its regional operations in to Bangladesh and China.

PC House Holdings, the parent of listed PC House (PCH) bought 12 million shares and S.H.M. Rishan said he bought 16 million shares of the OGL.

“We got few offers from Bangladesh and China, and we will soon set up operations in Bangladesh and an International Procurement Office (IPO) in China” Rishan added.

According to Managing Director of OGL Priyanjith Weerasooria, Rishan’s acquisition of OGL has come at a time when OGL group was looking in to a partner for regional expansion.

“Finco group will continue with its remaining 19% stake of the company and I will be on board during this smooth transition period until the company expands in to region” he said.

Priyanjith Weerasooria said Finco group now wants to focus on the leisure sector.

He also said that the group has stepped into building several resorts under a leisure arm UGA Resorts in the East of the country, following the end of a 30-year war and has a third resort up and running in Anuradhapura.

“Last year we launched Ulagalla Resort in Thirappane Anuradhapura, a high end luxury boutique resort, and we were the first to invest in Kuchchaveli on a leisure project” he said adding that Finco hopes to open Jungle Beach resort at Kuchchaveli Trincomalee in May, 2012 and Uga Bay resort in Passekudah Batticaloa in October, 2012.  Both are high end luxury boutique resorts with 50 rooms each.

It was revealed in May this year  the Kuchchaveli venture of Finco, will be constructed at a cost of Rs 700 million by International Construction Consortium (Pvt) Ltd (ICC) and Finco Group.

Nearly 30.1 million shares of OGL changed hands yesterday, and price shot up to Rs.37.40 and finally closed at Rs.21.80.

As at 30 April 2011, prior to its introductory listing in Colombo Bourse, OGL’s 65.11% (35.75 million)  stake was held by Finco Investments, 15.87% (8.7 million shares) by  Finco Holdings and 5.77% (3.16 million share) by Finco (Pvt) Ltd.

In June, OGL started trading at a reference price of Rs.23 and high networth investor Dr. T. Senthilverl that time bought 9 million shares or 16.39% stake at Rs. 28 per share in a deal worth Rs. 252 million. The company’s issued share capital stands at 54.9 million shares.

Having established in 1982 as a specialized outerwear manufacturer for the export market, Orient Garments (OGL) is today a fully-fledged garment manufacturer with 1,500 direct machine capacity employing over 3,500 personnel and produces nearly 3.5 million units per month. OGL Group comprises the holding company and two subsidiaries, Stafford Orient (Pvt) Limited and Priority Garments (Pvt) Limited.

The Group currently serves many leading international brands, including Next, Tesco, Tommy Hilfiger, Polo Ralph Lauren and Burberry. OGL Group has posted Rs. 2.8 billion revenue and earned Rs. 125.7 million profit attributable to shareholders during the financial year 2009/2010. For the 11-month period ended 28 February 2011, revenue was Rs. 3.3 billion and profit attributable to shareholders was Rs. 98.2 million. Net asset value of the Group as at 31 March 2010 was Rs. 512.3 million, which had improved to Rs. 603.7 million by end of February 2011.