Crown Paints raises Ksh.642.7 million from rights issue

Manufacturer Crown Paints has raised Ksh.642.7 million from its just concluded rights issue/additional shares issuance.

Proceeds from the rights issue represent the acceptance of the issuance of 64.3 million more shares by the company.

Shareholders nevertheless registered an over-subscription of bids for the rights issue under which they sought 81 million more shares for a combined Ksh.809.6 million.

The new shares are expected to be processed on Wednesday before their eventual listing and trading on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) from Thursday.

The board of Crown Paints accepted a lower sum than the Ksh.711.8 million sought and representative of 71.8 million shares for Ksh.10 a piece.

Proceeds from the rights issue are expected to be deployed in firming up the company’s capital base which has been significantly dented by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite Crown’s liquidity concerns, the firm marked a near two-fold growth in full year earnings to Ksh.599.5 million.

The near two-fold growth in profitability was anchored on higher sales which topped Ksh.9.2 billion from Ksh.8.6 billion previously.