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Sri Lanka abandons plans to sell national carrier

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Sri Lanka’s new government has abandoned plans to sell the debt-ridden national airline SriLankan Airlines, but will restructure it for a more profitable future.

“President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has instructed that the airline should be an institution that all Sri Lankans are proud of, and should be owned by Sri Lankans,” the airline’s new chairman Sarath Ganegoda told TTG Asia.

New Sri Lankan president Anura Kumara Dissanayake wants the airline to be proudly owned by Sri Lankans

The previous government had invited bids to part-sell and manage the airline that as been suffering accumulated losses over the years.

While the airline has reported an operating profit for the period April 2022 to end March 2023, its accumulated debt is US$1.2 billion. Under the earlier plan, the government was to retain 51 per cent control of the airline while selling off the remaining 49 per cent to investors. Six parties, some who had no experience in running an airline, responded with an initial call for interest but none was pre-qualified for the next step of the process.

Left-leaning politician Anura Kumara Dissanayake from the National People’ Party won last month’s presidential election. He had vowed to stop the sale of state assets which the former regime was pursuing. Dissanayake swiftly dismantled a government unit tasked with the sale of loss-making state agencies including SriLankan Airlines.

Ganegoda said the airline is an important pillar of tourism and responsible for 50 per cent of the tourist traffic into the country. Sri Lanka aims to reach 2.3 million arrivals this year with a target of three million tourists next year and five million by 2030.

He said while the sale of the airline has been stopped, there are plans to restructure the airline under a viable business model. “Some structuring of our operations is needed to strengthen the balance sheet,” he added.

(ttgasia.com)

(This story, originally published by .ttgasia.com has not been edited by SLM staff)

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Laugfs gas prices also to remain unchanged

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Laugfs Gas PLC announced that the company will not revise domestic LP gas prices for the month of November 2024.

Accordingly, the current prices of Laugfs domestic LP gas cylinders are as follows :
12.5 kg cylinder – Rs. 3,680
05 kg cylinder – Rs. 1,477

Earlier today (Nov. 04)  Litro Gas also said that domestic LP gas prices will remain unchanged for this month.

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Litro gas prices for November remain unchanged

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The Litro Gas Company has stated that prices of their domestic LP Gas cylinders will remain unchanged for the month of November 2024.

The Chairman of the Litro Gas Company, Channa Gunawardena stated that the company decided to keep the prices of LP gas cylinders unchanged despite the price hike in the global market, in order to provide relief to the consumers.

Accordingly, the prices of Litro LP gas domestic gas cylinders will remain unchanged as follows:

12.5kg – Rs. 3,690
05kg – Rs. 1,482
2.3kg – Rs. 694

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Dr. Mothilal de Silva appointed new chairman of SLT

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Dr. Mothilal de Silva has been appointed as an Independent, non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Board of Sri Lanka Telecom PLC with effect from today (Nov. 04).

With a career spanning over many decades, Dr Mothilal de Silva is a result oriented multidisciplinary C-level executive in the telecommunication industry having experience in Sri Lanka and multiple countries in Asia and Pacific regions. He is a turnaround specialist and a strategist.

Under his leadership as Group Chief Executive Officer, he turned around the Fiji’s state-owned telecommunication company Telecom Fiji Ltd sustainably after 5+ consecutive loss-making years. During his tenure at Telecom Fiji, the company registered consistent growth in profit, dividend and investment for network modernisation. He was also the Group Chief Strategy Officer and Group Chief Corporate Officer of Dialog Axiata, General Manager (Sales, Marketing and Customer Service) of MTN Networks Pvt Ltd and Vice President Process Excellence and Group Operations of Axiata Group Malaysia. He sat on the Board of Directors of Lanka Communication Services Pvt Ltd, a telecommunication service provider for enterprises in Sri Lanka.

As a C-level executive at Dialog, Mothilal set up Corporate Planning, Strategy, MIS, Business Intelligence, Performance Management, Quality, Process Reengineering, Enterprise Program Management and Corporate Development divisions from scratch while apprenticing young set of managers who had progressed to become leaders in Dialog and Axiata Group subsidiary companies. He was also instrumental in winning GSMA awards, International Asia Pacific Quality Award, Asia CSR award for Dialog Axiata and many national awards.

Mothilal obtained Doctor of Business Administration from PPA Business School, Paris, with a distinction for his dissertation “Corporate Venture Capital as an engagement model for co-creating 5G ready services”. He has a MSc in IT from Keele University UK, MBA from PIM, SL, BSc (Engineering) SL, Post Graduate Diploma in Strategic Management from Maastricht School of Management, Netherland and a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing Management from PIM SL.

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