Privatization of 7 SOEs : New update

March 29, 2023 at 1:39 PM

The Ministry of Finance has called for Expressions of Interest (EOI) from consultancy firms interested in providing sell-side transaction advisory services with respect to the divestiture of four state-owned enterprises.

Issuing a statement, the Finance Ministry said its State-owned Enterprise Restructuring Unit (SRU) will place advertisements in the local and international press and via LinkedIn on Thursday, 30th of March 2023.

The Expressions of Interest (EOI) have been called from consultancy firms interested in providing sell-side transaction advisory services with respect to the divestiture of Government of Sri Lanka controlled stakes in the following enterprises: 

  1. Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation Ltd 
  2. Litro Gas Lanka Ltd and Litro Gas Terminals Ltd 
  3. Hotel Developers Lanka Ltd (The Hilton, Colombo) 
  4. Canwill Holdings Pvt Ltd (Grand Hyatt, Colombo) 

The Finance Ministry said interested firms will be required to respond to Request for Proposal (RFP) documents as well when responding to the EOI. 

Firms are free to express interest with respect to one or more of the above mentioned enterprises. Responses must be submitted on or before 4pm on 27th April 2023. 

The Ministry further stated that the Quality and Cost Based Selection (QCBS) method of the Government’s Consultant Procurement Guideline will be used to select transaction advisors. 

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance said it was in the process of negotiating with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, to seek it services as transaction advisor for the divestiture of the government’s stakes in the following enterprises: 

  1. Sri Lankan Airlines incl. Sri Lankan Catering Ltd 
  2. Sri Lanka Telecom PLC 
  3. Lanka Hospital Corporation PLC 

The Ministry stated that the transaction advisors will, inter-alia, assist the SRU with sell-side due diligence, valuation, data room creation, transaction strategy and marketing of the entities to be divested.

The Finance Ministry said the divestitures will be carried out by the SRU in a transparent and credible manner following an EOI / RFP process which will be published in the local and international press. Unsolicited proposals will not be entertained. (NewsWire)