The State-Owned Enterprises Restructuring Unit of the Ministry of Finance has provided an update on the divestiture process of shares held by the Government of Sri Lanka in several entities and the measures taken to manage the State Owned Enterprise (SOE) sector.
Issuing a statement, the Finance Ministry provided a progress update on the divestiture of shares held by the government in Hotel Developers Lanka Ltd (HDL, owners of Hilton Colombo), Canwill Holdings Pvt Ltd (CHPL, owners of Grand Hyatt Colombo), Lanka Hospitals Corporation PLC (LHCP), Sri Lanka Telecom PLC (SLT), SriLankan Airlines Ltd (SLA), Litro Gas Lanka Ltd/Litro Gas Terminals (Pvt) Ltd (together LITRO), Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation Life Limited and Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation General Limited (together SLIC).
The Ministry says as of date, pre-bid meetings have been held for all entities identified for divestiture, adding that in certain instances, at the request of potential bidders with the advice of the Transaction Advisors and with approvals of the Special Project Committees (SPC) and Special Cabinet Appointed Negotiating Committee (SpCANC), the Request for Qualification (RfQ) closing dates were extended to foster greater competition.
Deadlines for the submission of RfQs for HDL, CHPL, LHCP, SLT, SLIC and LITRO have now closed, while the deadline for SLA remains open until 22nd April 2024.
It is envisaged that all transactions other than SriLankan Airlines will be concluded by August 2024, while the timeline for SriLankan Airlines is likely to extend to the end of September 2024.
The Finance Ministry also said that work has been done to set up a structured, efficient and well-governed process to manage the State Owned Enterprise (SOE) sector going forward.
This is part of the overall reform program of the government and aims to transform SOEs into well-governed, competitive and financially disciplined entities that provide citizens with essential goods and services effectively and efficiently without being a drain on public finances.
The full statement of the Finance Ministry;
