The Employees Provident Fund (EPF), private sector workers superannuation fund has incurred major losses due to investments in various businesses in the recent past, Forensic audit and Presidential Commission of Inquiry reports revealed.
The EPF Department on January 16 said the 2 trillion rupee fund made up of private sector employee retirement savings has lost Rs.8.4 billion in the value of stocks held for investment, since it first purchased each stock, up to June 2018.
Stocks held for trading lost 24.9 percent of their value, or rs. 742.7 million with the biggest hit coming from Aitken Spence and its hotel subsidiary.
The EPF had lost about Rs. 2.0 billion on Colombo Dockyard shares, over Rs1 billion on Laugfs Gas Plc voting and non-voting stocks and a Rs. 1.7 billion fall in value came through Carsons Cumberbatch Plc.
Another Rs.1.7 billion loss reported from Carsons oil palm unit Bukit Darah Plc.
Over a billion rupees each were also slashed from market values of Browns & Co Plc, the troubled The Finance Company Plc and the John Keells hotel subsidiary Asian Hotels & Properties Plc.
In total 43 stocks lost value for EPF shareholders after being bought, out of 66 stocks held in the investment portfolio.
The sum of Rs.205.49 million invested by the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in the troubled The Finance Company has gone to zero, the equity portfolio listed by the EPF as of 31 December 2019 revealed.
The Central bank is waiting to cancel the licence of The Finance Company following the government’s decision on this Non Bank Finance institution.
The EPF had bought Rs. 737 million of stock in Brown and Company Plc for which document showed investment committee approval from SHM Rishan, who was involved in PC House, a listed company which was removed from the stock exchange for non-compliance.
The EPF had made losses of Rs. 1.1 billion on a portfolio of 6.6 million shares of Browns.No approvals were available for investments of Rs. 463 million rupees in non-bank financial institutions..
(LI)