FINANCIAL CHRONICLE — A mandatory acquisition attempt for Industrial Asphalts (Ceylon) (IAC) in Sri Lanka has been halted following a decision by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to deny clearance for a share transfer. This decision came after the company was added to the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) Watchlist due to compliance issues.
The joint bid made by Arcasia Investment & Trading (Pvt) Ltd and ATX Partners (Pvt) Ltd concluded on September 12, garnering acceptances for 1,880,693,010 shares, which represents 50.16 percent of IAC’s total shares. The acceptances were primarily from two key shareholders: executive director Ramanan Govindasamy and Srikumar Balasubramaniyam.
However, the deal encountered a setback when IAC shares were placed on the CSE Watchlist on September 7, following the company’s failure to submit its Annual Report for the fiscal year that ended on March 31. According to CSE Listing Rules, directors of companies listed on the Watchlist are prohibited from engaging in share transactions without prior explicit approval from the SEC.
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On September 11, the SEC communicated to the parties involved that the approval for the share transfer connected to the executive director would not be granted until IAC addresses the compliance issues that led to its Watchlist status.
As of now, IAC shares have seen a decline of 14.29 percent, trading at 0.60 rupees. (Colombo/September 15/2026)
