The initial public offering of Sri Lanka's People's Leasing Company (PLC), the largest in more-than six years, has been oversubscribed by over 2.5 billion Sri Lanka rupee ($22.7 million), the firm said on Friday. PLC, a subsidiary of the island-nation's unlisted state-owned People's Bank, said demand for the issue emanated primarily from local and foreign institutional investors and customers of the company who are expected to have a medium- to long-term investment horizon.
PLC's IPO is Sri Lanka's largest IPO since top mobile operator Dialog Axiata offered $85 million in July 2005. Sri Lanka's Colombo Stock Exchange last month approved a 7 billion Sri Lanka rupee ($63 million) sale of shares in PLC, which offered 390 million shares for 18 rupees each. The company had expected to raise $19.1 million from foreign investors through the IPO.