Lanka may appoint local advisors for small SOE divestment

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka may appoint domestic transaction advisors for smaller divestments in the future, Director General of the State Enterprise Restructuring Unit Suresh Shah said.

In the first set of enterprises to be sold, which included Sri Lanka Insurance, Sri Lanka Telecom and Litro Gas, international transaction advisors were appointed.By appointing local advisors in future transactions, sometime could be saved, Shah told a forum organized by CAL, a Colombo-based investment banking group.

Sri Lanka has about 80 commercial state enterprises that could be moved to private hands, he said.Government procurement processes were time consuming and could be frustrating at times, he said.The SOE unit was however going by the rules.