The government is expecting to raise over US$ one billion through the sale of non-strategic firms (SOE) through the stock exchange, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said.
The five entities that are ear marked for this are Colombo Hilton, Grand Orient Hotel, Lanka Hospitals, Hyatt Hotel and Water’s Edge.
The main of aim of this is raising capital towards settling national debt. Speaking after signing ‘Statements of Corporate Intent’ with the largest five SOEs yesterday the Minister said that these are loss making entities.
“After the change of government steps were taken to reduce the losses of State enterprises and this had being successful however the five entities could not be turned around.”
Sri Lanka has 403 state entities and around 20 subsidiaries that include corporations, banks, academic institutions and publicly traded firms in which the state owns large stakes. The largest losses that de-stabilise the country are usually made at Ceylon Petroleum Corporation and Ceylon
Electricity Board, which do not market price energy due to political pressure. In the first eight months of 2017, profits rose to 123.6 billion rupees, with 50 billion rupees coming from Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, with low oil prices.
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