Dialog Sri Lanka’s largest Rights Issue oversubscribed

Foreign inflow of over US$130 million

INVESTMENT: Dialog Telekom Ltd. (DTL), announced yesterday, that its Rights Issue, which would raise 15.54 billion for the company, was successfully subscribed for by over 100%, thereby making the issue the largest ever equity raising to be executed in the Sri Lankan capital market.

The success of the landmark issue symbolizes a strong vote of confidence placed on Sri Lanka and Dialog Telekom by the investing community, with Dialog’s parent Telekom Malaysia leading the pack by enhancing its direct investment in the country by Rs 13 Bn, through subscribing in full for its entitlement under the rights issue.

The Dialog Telekom Rights Issue attracted substantial interest from Dialog’s shareholders spanning foreign institutional, domestic institutional and domestic retail segments. The inward foreign currency remittances for the rights issue have exceeded USD 130 Mn representing one of the largest foreign investment flows to the country.

The 1 for 10 Rights issue will also give rise to a 10 per cent increase in the tradable shares of Dialog, enhancing the liquidity of the share in the market.

The performance of the DIAL share has been a key ingredient contributing to the growth and resilience of the CSE and key benchmark indices. The DIAL share rose by approximately 115% during the 23 months following the company’s listing in July 2005. Presently DIAL accounts for more than 22% of the market capitalisation of the CSE.

The proceeds of the Rights Issue will go towards partially financing Dialog Group’s planned capital expenditure, which focuses on accelerated expansion of network capacity and coverage and transformational investments in convergent technologies spanning the multiple businesses lines of the group.

The equity raising exercise represents a fundamental element of the larger medium term funding programme undertaken by the Dialog group, which would include further local and off-shore debt infusions aimed at maintaining an optimally geared capital structure.

The identified investments span the breadth of the strategic business matrix of the group, including expansion of the company’s GSM and 3G mobile networks, introduction of state of the art Value Added Services and the establishment of Broadband transmission networks across the island based on Fibre Optic and Microwave transmission technologies.

A significant portion of the group’s proposed investments will be channeled towards augmenting coverage and capacity in the mobile network in order to consolidate and grow market leadership and product leadership in the segment. Investments will also be made in the Fixed line, Broadband, Carrier Service and digital television media businesses.

These beachhead investments would establish a solid platform for the Dialog group to benefit from the burgeoning mobile market as well as from growth in relatively under-served segments such as Broadband Internet, Enterprise Solutions, fixed telephony, digital media and wholesale business leveraging on common infrastructure and convergent technology platforms.