“The government is keen to streamline its portfolio of investments and will therefore exit partially or fully from those non-strategic investments in Lanka Hospitals, Hotel Developers PLC (Colombo Hilton), Hyatt Residencies, Waters Edge, Grand Oriental Hotel, Ceylinco Hospital and Mobitel by listing such investments in the Colombo Stock Exchange during 2016,” Karunanayake said.
The portfolio of investments of the government includes not only state-owned enterprises engaged in maintaining and controlling key strategic infrastructure in power generation, transmission, ports, airports, water supply etc., but also investments in hotels, condominiums, etc. that are non-strategic.
He said that the government’s policy in SOEs will be driven by the strategic placement of its investments in relation to the economy.
Karunanayake said the monies generated through such listings will be used to retire high cost debt accrued by the former Rajapaksa regime.
“I note that the strategy of this government is not one sided in so far that while the government will not hesitate to exit from non-strategic assets, nevertheless the government will monitor the market and will also not hesitate to invest in strategic assets locally and internationally should it align with the economic policy of the country.”
http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/sri-lanka-to-sell-lanka-hospitals-colombo-hilton-hyatt-waters-edge-and-mobitel-on-cse/#comment-2868