Sri Lanka's Finance Ministry has disclosed that two prominent companies from China and India have advanced to the Request for Proposal (RFP) stage for acquiring a majority stake in the state-owned Sri Lanka Telecom PLC (SLT).
The Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL), facilitated by the Ministry of Finance, Economic Stabilization, and National Policies, recently initiated a call for Request for Qualification (RFQs) from potential investors interested in acquiring shares in Sri Lanka Telecom PLC. The submission deadline for proposals closed at 2 pm on Friday, January 12, 2024.
Evaluation of the received RFQs was conducted by the Finance Ministry's State-Owned Enterprise Restructuring Unit (SRU) in accordance with the Special Guidelines on Divestiture of State-Owned Enterprises, endorsed by the Cabinet of Ministers in July 2023.
Following a meticulous assessment, the Cabinet Appointed Special Project Committee (SPCC) and the Special Cabinet Appointed Negotiating Committee (SpCANC) have pre-qualified two distinguished entities: India's Jio Platforms, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd. led by Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani, and China's Gortune International Investment Holdings, as contenders for the RFP stage.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is tasked with overseeing the divestiture process, serving as the Transaction Advisor for the sale of the government's shares in Sri Lanka Telecom PLC.
