Sri Lankan firm plans to get listed in 5 years 

Highlights 

• JAT Holdings Bangladesh has a plan to set up a factory to produce coating under its own brand "White" and enhance research and development facility for wood coating by investing Tk12 crore.
• JAT Holdings Bangladesh has started its journey in 2009 together with local business conglomerate Akhter Group. 
• The company distributed the wood coating under the brand name "Sayerlack", an Italian brand that provides wood finishes in the industry.

JAT Holdings Bangladesh (Pvt) Limited, an affiliate company of Sri Lanka-based JAT Holdings, plans to get listed on local stock exchanges in the next five years.

"JAT Holdings is looking at getting listed on Bangladesh's capital market in the next five years," JAT Holdings Chairman Dr Sivakumar Selliah said in the company's recently-held annual general meeting in Sri Lanka. 

That is why JAT Holdings Bangladesh has a plan to set up a factory to produce coating under its own brand "White" and enhance research and development facility for wood coating by investing Tk12 crore.

To strengthen its overseas operations, the mother company JAT Holdings will raise funds by issuing shares in the Colombo Stock Exchange.

Managing Director of JAT Holdings Aelian Gunawardene at the virtual launch of the initial public offering (IPO) said that this investment would be made from the proceeds raised from the proposed IPO which would be launched on 20 July. The overseas operation investments would be made through a fully owned subsidiary of JAT Holdings, which is based in Dubai.

The managing director said, "We will be investing Tk1.68 crore for enhancing the existing research and development facility to a fully-fledged, state-of-the-art facility for all coatings and a further Tk10 crore locally for expanding the "White" brand coating by JAT marketing and development initiatives."

Bangladesh has a good central bank that has kept the exchange rate stable for over a decade and has avoided currency crises and monetary instability, he added.

JAT Holdings Bangladesh has started its journey in 2009 together with local business conglomerate Akhter Group. The company distributed the wood coating under the brand name "Sayerlack", an Italian brand that provides wood finishes in the industry.

When contacted with its local office, the responder has denied making any comments over this issue.

The company claimed in its annual report that currently JAT enjoys a market share of 30% in the wood coating segment in Bangladesh and the brand is synonymous with the high-quality wood coatings in the country and is the exclusive supplier to seven of the 15 largest local industrial furnishing exporters.

Furthermore, revenues from Bangladesh, the top export destination fell from Tk70 crore in 2020 to Tk23 crore in 2021, making it the second-largest market, after Sri Lanka.

The wood coating market depends on the furniture and wood industry. Stakeholders believe the growth of this industry has primarily been driven by the country's flourishing corporate sector in the last 20 years. The industry now enjoys an annual growth of 18-20%.

The country's furniture industry is huge, with yearly revenues exceeding Tk10,000 crore.

At present Berger Paints led the coating industry.