The Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) has embarked on a process of implementing structural reforms to accelerate growth so that the country can emerge out of the current economic crisis. The State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) sector, which for many years has been a severe burden on the Sri Lankan economy, has been identified for reforms on a priority basis. These reforms are expected to contribute towards higher economic productivity by reducing market distortions, increasing organizational efficiency and improving the quality of service to the public.

The GOSL has set up the State-Owned Enterprise Restructuring Unit (SRU) under the Ministry of Finance, Economic Stabilization and National Policies (MoF) to implement the above process.

By its decision dated the 13^th March 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved in principle the divestiture of the following enterprises;

• Sri Lankan Airlines Ltd including Sri Lankan Catering Ltd
• Sri Lanka Telecom PLC
• Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation Ltd
• Canwill Holdings Pvt Ltd (Grand Hyatt Colombo)
• Hotel Developers Lanka Ltd (Hilton Hotel Colombo)
• Litro Gas Lanka Ltd including Litro Gas Terminals (Pvt) Ltd
• Lanka Hospital Corporation PLC

The SRU will appoint reputed, qualified and experienced consultancy firms and / or development financial institutions to provide transaction advisory services to assist with the divestitures and the process of selecting such transaction advisors will commence shortly.

The transaction advisors will, inter-alia, assist the SRU with sell-side due diligence, valuation, data room creation, transaction strategy and marketing of the entities to be divested.

The divestiture program will be carried out by the SRU in a transparent and credible manner and investor selection will commence with an EOI / RFP process to be published in the local and international press.