MTD Walkers today (28) announced that the transaction in respect of the sale and purchase of 90.78% of its stake amounting to 152.18 million shares to Business magnate Ravi Wijeratne will not be pursued.

In a stock exchange filing, the company stated that they have been informed by MTD Capital Bhd, Malaysia, that the intended transaction in respect of the sale and purchase of 90.78% of the issued shares of MTD walkers PLC, amounting to 152,183,583 shares, held by them, to Hewawasamge Ravindranath Srilal Wijeratne, the announcement of which was made by the company to the CSE on 9^th September will not be pursued as there has been no positive development and or progress on the transaction.

The company added that as the completion date stipulated in the share sale and purchase agreement ( SSPA) has lapsed, the SSPA shall have no further effect on the parties.

On 9th September 2019, in a filing to the Colombo Stock Exchange, MTD Walkers informed that it has received a letter from Wijeratne stating he has agreed with MTD Capital Bhd to purchase the majority shareholding of MTD Walkers. The stake of 90.78% amounts to 152.18 million shares.

However, on 7^th October 2019, MTD walkers announced that they have received an enjoining order from the Commercial High Courts of Colombo preventing the company from being taken over by Ravi Wijeratne.

The order was obtained by Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC from the Commercial High Courts of Colombo preventing MTD Walkers (KAPI) or its holding company MTD Capital Bhd, from going through with the transaction or any similar transaction without approval by Commercial Bank until all outstanding dues to Commercial Bank are settled.

MTD Walkers is a listed construction company engaged in infrastructure-related businesses.

It has been in focus for heavy impact that the company experienced due to non-payment or delayed payment by the Government for state infrastructure projects carried out by the company, apart from getting large loans amounting to billions that were capitalized through having a Director who was also on the board of one of country’s leading state-owned Licensed Commercial Banks, according to several media reports. 

The company has also failed to pay interest to debentures it released to the market in recent years whilst the shares are under watch list due to failure to comply with several Listing Rules.