COLOMBO INVESTMENT TRUST PLC (CIT) - THE CROWN JEWEL OF CFLB

Colombo Fort Land and Building Company PLC (CFLB) is a fully diversified conglomerate with interest in many sectors. The CFLB group through it complex structure own and control many companies including its flagship listed companies Lankem Ceylon PLC, EB Creasy and Company PLC, Muller & Phipps (Ceylon) PLC, Colonial Motors PLC, York Arcade Holdings PLC, Kotagala Plantations PLC, Agrapathana Planations PLC, Sigiri Village Hotels PLC, Maravilla Resorts PLC. Please read the report on CFLB & CIT.
http://www.srilankaequity.com/2010/02/colombo-fort-land-building-company-plc.html
http://www.srilankaequity.com/2010/03/colombo-investment-trust-cit-crown.html

Group Structure of CFLB & CIT



Shareholdings of CFLB
As per the shareholdings of CFLB the Colombo Investments Trust PLC (CIT) and Colombo Fort Investment PLC (CFI) owns 13.74% (4,947,517 shares) and 10.81% (3,890,076 shares) of CFLB respectively. Further in addition the above direct holdings in CFLB, there is a clear cross holdings between the two companies CIT and CFI. CIT owns 31.69% (1,584,571 shares) of CIT whereas CFI owns 12.95% (732,402 shares) of CIT.

Importance of CIT to CFLB Shareholders
Majority shareholdings in CFLB is vested between three unlisted companies namely Property Investments holdings Limited, Capital Investments Limited and Financial Trusts Limited. Jointly these three companies control approximately 33.10% and Mr Senthirajah the Chairman of CFLB directly owns approximately 6.22% shareholdings. The two Investment Trusts CFI and CIT approximately control 24.5% of CFLB and further 17.17% is held by the Public (Outside top 20 shareholders).

As seen from the shareholdings of CFLB it is crucial for the majority shareholders to be in firm control of CIT& CFI. The control CFI can be achieved with the control of CIT as the latter owns approximately 31.69% of CFI. Therefore control of CIT is the most significant to the control of CFLB.

Who Controls Colombo Investment Trust PLC (CIT) ?

It is important to disregard the CFLB's and CFI's shareholdings in CIT when considering the ownership of CIT as shareholders cannot control CFLB and CFI without the control of CIT.

Majority of shares of CIT are presently held by two unlisted companies namely Financial Trust Limited, Property and Investment Holdings Limited. Jointly theses two companies control approximately 49.87%. This was as result of Financial Trust Limited increasing its shareholdings from 32% to current 35% during latter part of FY 2009.

Therefore we could determine that the shareholdings of Financial Trust Limited is the key to the control of CFLB. Financial Trust Limited is an unlisted company and the shareholdings are not available to the public. In the event if the control of Financial Trust Limited becomes unclear due some unforeseen reason then most important company within the CFLB group undoubtedly is the CIT. Therefore one could consider Colombo Investment Trust PLC (CIT) to be the Crown Jewel of the CFLB group.

Courtesy- Sri Lanka Equity Analytics


Stock Pick said...
Very Interesting analysis.

after reading this article, you may wonder which company is the ultimate holding company of this large conglomerate. It is not incorrect to say CIT is the ultimate holding company of the group although CFLB look the most obvious on paper.

This seems the work of a genius like Mr Senathiraja, he deserves a honorary title like "Deshabandu" for this great piece of craftsmanship.

MARCH 14, 2010 7:25 PM
Jeewantha said...
CSE disclosure made by CIT secretaries indicates that some Directors have indirectly purchased shares of CIT at price above Rs 80/= per share.

APRIL 21, 2010 7:25 PM

When I posted almost same articles/information about CFLB, Sir mono posted reply as:

1)I am promoting CFLB
2)The break of a bank is a offence (Success or Not)
3)My reading comprehension
4)And a lot of PANDI Wadan

SIR MONO, WHY YOU SILENCE REGARDING THUS POST BY Quibit .You ask her to not to promote CFLB as you said me.
YOU DAWAL MIGEL-RE DANIEL(Where's your pandi wadan?)
Also now CFLB almost Rs.550/=.You told that this share is already overvalued.When any member identify the potential share, i have seen these people make a fear among the other members and they do not allow to get the benifit from them.(Making suspicious among the members.).Lejjai.

Anybody know if any outside parties buying the shares of the CFLB. There are lots of CFLB related companies owning parts of each other. I read in the stock market reports that CFLB price is driven by the retailers. What if the the shares are just swapping between the same CFLB group of companies and taking the retailers for a ride.

Well On paper CFLB is set for Booming times and my self and others have anlaysed the forecast EPS and the price that CFLB can trade. I said when this was trading at 450 + that it was under valued.

However I also aid that it has a very low free float with some 5 million odd shares trading.... This means that it is highly illiquid and can be pushed up on any positive news in no time....and if there is negativity the reverse applies

There has also been rumour that in the past too CFLb group has had it share priced pushed by company officials.

Its a share that u should have in your portfolio.this share is good for short term, medium and and Long you can make something out of it either way.

Monitor it closely and buy when It contracts again....CFLB future looks good

If you have bought at a lower price lets say 250 range well you can sell now and smile or hold on .

Forecast 1.5 billion profit to 2 Billion will not be for nothing

QUIBIT

I haven't analyzed CIT.
It is a investment trust ?
NAV is very low compared to the share price

These looks highly planned transaction , couple of shares trading at very high prices.

I wonder whether there is any retails participationa t all.

When i checked (first time i looked at this company), its NAV is about 320 +/- and trading at 700+/- Its a portfolio of shares , i wonder why somebody purchase that portfolios rather you can create the same using original shares. Why soembody doesn't buy NAML abot 2-3 times of its book value?

Why all of sudden a couples of share traded in very high prices.

yep, retailers beware.
As I said in another post, CFLB should be in the investments holdings category. Just because the invested companies make profit doesn't transfer to the invested company unless they sell it or get it as a huge dividend.
And I don't trust the management of these group of companies at all.

wis wrote:yep, retailers beware.
As I said in another post, CFLB should be in the investments holdings category. Just because the invested companies make profit doesn't transfer to the invested company unless they sell it or get it as a huge dividend.
And I don't trust the management of these group of companies at all.

First of all arnt investment companies valued with their net asset value and not their eps ? Accounting for CTI's appriximate 5 million shares in CFLB and and 1.5 million shares in CFI at their current prices alone make it undervalued even at todays closing price. Pls correct me if im wrong.

http://www.cse.lk/cmt/upload_report_file/610_1297417441445.pdf

CIT, a rare stamp! Like CDIC, selected by friend Innam and Gaja!

What do you think of CFLB holding company structure.