The Board of Directors at Lanka Hospitals PLC, which comes under the purview of the Finance Ministry, was replaced by the new government. Venerable Theeniyawala Palitha Thera too has been included in the new 13 member Board of Directors.

Thus, Lanka Hospitals PLC enters history as the first Listed Company at the Colombo Stock Exchange to have a Buddhist monk on its Board of Directors.

Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said on 20 February that a 13 member Board of Directors, including Dr. Sarath Paranavithana as Chairman, Deputy Secretary of the Sri Lanka Mahabodhi Society Ven. Theeniyawala Palitha Thera and Dilani Lokuhetti have been nominated and would be announced within a few days.

Ven. Theeniyawala Palitha Thera is the chief incumbent of the Nalandaramaya Temple in Nugegoda and a prominent member of the United National Party’s (UNP) National Bhikku Front and has been involved in several activities like against the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation’s hedging deal and the increase of the electricity tariffs by the Ceylon Electricity Board. He has been closely backed by new Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake in most of these cases.

One of the largest private hospitals in Sri Lanka, Lanka Hospitals was established in 2002 as the Apollo Hospital with investments from the Chennai based Apollo Hospitals Group on a plot of government owned land at Elvitigala Mawatha in Narahenpita.

The prominent feature here is the Apollo Hospitals Group selling its shares and leaving the business at a period when this hospital was incurring losses. An examination of its financial reports reveals that during the June quarter of 2006 Apollo Hospitals was incurring a loss of Rs. 14.3 million.

However, in 2009, with the Supreme Court revoking the privatization of Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation and vesting its shares with the Finance Ministry, the ownership of Lanka Hospitals Corporation shares of Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation came into government hands.

Following this, the Board of Directors was dissolved and a new Board under the Chairmanship of then Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was appointed.

Under the Chairmanship of then Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, this hospital saw a turn-around and transformed itself into a profit earning entity, without Gotabhaya Rajapaksa reportedly not obtaining a salary for his services.

The Lanka Hospitals Board of Directors under the Chairmanship of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa comprised Ms. R.S. Cabraal, Vidyajothi Professor Dayasiri Fernando, Gamini Wickremasinghe, P.A. Lionel, Malvinder Mohan Singh, Shivinder Mohan Singh, Sunil Godwani, Bandula Wijesiriwardene, Nihal Jayatilleke and Kanishka Karunaratne. Three Indian nationals were appointed to this Board to represent the 28.6 per cent shares of Lanka Hospitals owned by Sri Lanka Distilleries Corporation which were bought by the prominent Indian hospital group Fortis Healthcare Limited.

Currently, around 55 per cent shares of Lanka Hospitals belong to Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation while some 10 per cent is with the Bank of Ceylon. While some 28 per cent is held by India’s Fortis Healthcare Limited around 08 per cent more are with shareholders through the Colombo Stock Exchange. There are some 8,500 shareholders of Lanka Hospitals through the Colombo Stock Exchange.

Lanka Hospitals recording a profit of Rs. 269 million within the first nine months of 2014 is another significant feature.

Recently, Chief Executive Officer of Lanka Hospitals Ltd., Lakith Pieris informed the Colombo Stock Exchange that he is to resign from his post effective 31 March 2015. He is reportedly to join the competitor in the healthcare sector, Hemas Hospitals Group.