Centurion: Huge public demand for shares

Centurion Plc, which recently made history by becoming the first private limited company in Maldives to go public, has reported that there was huge demand for its shares from the public.

Centurion Plc, a large-scale shipping and logistics company, is selling 6.7 million shares at the rate of MVR 25. Each shareholder needs to buy a minimum of four shares of the company – meaning an investment of MVR 100.

Centurion has made public 49 percent of its shares.

It opened the shares for public purchase on October 19, and the opportunity will be available until December 13.

Chairman of Centurion Plc, Ahmed Maumoon (Captain Maanu) spoke to “Sun” and said that there was huge demand for the company’s shares from the public.

“There’s great demand. A lot of people are interested in purchasing our shares,” said Captain Maanu.

He noted that there were challenges in making its shares available to interested parties living in atolls.

“It’s a challenge to widen the reach. We are putting a lot of effort to making it available to the atolls. Though we have established focal points for sale of shares in islands, we are facing difficulty sending resources such as forms to those focal points,” he said.

Captain Maanu said the company was determined to overcome the challenge and make shares more conveniently available in the atolls.

A team of officials from the company will be visiting islands and running promotional events such as roadshows starting the coming weekend.

Captain Maanu said that a team was scheduled to visit H. Dh. Kulhudhuffushi the coming weekend and run IPO (Initial Public Offering) promotional events on the island, which will be expanded to the south of the country.

Speaking during an earlier interview, Captain Maanu said that it was his goal to ensure that a shareholder of Centurion lived in every household across the country.

“My hope is to remain the leading shipping and logistics company in Maldives, 50 years in the future. And to ensure it makes a recognizable footprint in the region,” he said.

MVR 168 million it earns from sale of shares is to be spent on acquiring capital assets.

Shares can be bought from eight centers in Male’, Vilimale’ Post Office and two centers in Hulhumale’.

It can also be bought using an e-banking portal by Bank of Maldives.