Vipula Gunatilleka

And… following my previous post, a little video if you are interested to know a bit more about the Special Day of Flying.

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A disappointing outcome, if not an entirely unforeseen one. Plans to sell #srilankan airlines have been in the works for a while now, with successive governments testing viability through informal reach-outs to potential buyers, unsolicited bids and G2G level discussions. Including it in the #SOE divestiture exercise as part of the #IMF led reforms is only the most recent and perhaps the first formal #ICB based attempt in the last decade. Lots of reasons have been floated as to why there's limited foreign interest, including existing #debt (short and long term liabilities apparently exceeding US$1.3Bn, although media reports state that the #treasury recently absorbed around US$500Mn of it), minimal infrastructure and owned assets (with all of its #aircraft leased, and some on what are claimed by industry experts to be fairly onerous wet lease terms), an overweight #labour force (particularly in the administrative/ground staff) and perceptions of #political interference in management and operations. Of course, there are experts & stakeholders who can better comment on these things. However, retaining it as a #state owned enterprise is perhaps not the solution. At a broader level, this is perhaps the first public failure of a badly handled SOE divestiture exercise. Several of the other projects (including Litro Gas, SLIC and Lanka Hospitals have been suspended, stalled or are under a 'go-slow' approach from the #gosl, and an exercise which was ambitiously projected to be fully completed by July/September this year hasn't resulted in a single completed transaction. I'm aware that a number of serious foreign bidders for the various opportunities (including some extremely well resourced multinationals) have been frustrated by and withdrawn from the entire process, citing delays and impracticalities, as well as lack of adequate information for due diligence purposes. Surprising, given the government's engagement of both international and reputed domestic legal and financial advisers as sell-side counsel. Perhaps the timeline was too ambitious. Very likely that the expected presidential elections and the vocal opposition to the divestiture by most political parties (including the government's own allies) had, as we lawyer prefer to term it, a 'material adverse affect'. Coming back to the topic at hand, though, perhaps it's time to forego pride and accept what Lee Kuan Yew said about Sri Lankan Airlines all those years ago - "a glamour project, not of great value for developing Sri Lanka." Sudath Perera Associates #srilanka #enterprise #law #legal #airlines #SOE #assetdivestment #ppp

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