Sri Lanka renews search for investor for national air carrier
Posted on August 21st, 2018
Courtesy NewsIn.com
Colombo, Aug 21 (newsin.asia) – The Sri Lankan government will renew its search for an investor for its national air carrier, Sri Lankan airlines within the next three months through public call for offers, Advisor to the Finance Ministry, Mano Tittawella said Tuesday.
In a local media report, Tittawella said the public private partnership unit in the Treasury will request expressions of interest in September or October as the government hopes to be in negotiation with interested parties during the first quarter of 2019.
The new board at Sri Lankan (Airlines) has now activated a strategic business plan and are confident that by the end of the financial year 2018/2019 the airline can record a significantly lesser loss than what was recorded when the new board took office in April 2018,” Tittawella said.
He added some investors had already expressed interest in investing in the airline.
Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, in 2016 said the government was seeking an international partner who could manage and invest in the national airline carrier after the airline recorded a massive debt of 3.25 billion U.S. dollars.
Wickremesinghe said that Sri Lankan Airlines was a ‘landmine’ for the country’s economy with its high debts and the government would take over part of its debts in order to seek for an international partner or investor.
August 24th, 2018 at 4:30 pm
This GOSL had three and a half years to do this. Why now?. Besides people like Tittawela has a history and cannot be trusted to do a clean job. As once they did to me on board the Si Lankan, they will try to deliver a ‘landmine’.