CHC to go public

The functions of the Ceylon Hotels Corporation (CHC) will be taken over by a public company incorporated for this purpose, under a new Bill to be presented to Parliament next week which will also repeal the CHC Act No 14 of 1966.

The Company incorporated to take over the functions will be known as CHC Limited and will be formed under the Government Owned Business Undertaking into Public Companies Act.

The Corporation has around 480 employees and they will be given the option to continue in service or opt out of service in the CHC by accepting compensation under a voluntary retirement scheme.

Talks have been held with trade unions within the CHC and they have agreed to the voluntary retirement scheme as it was a very fair scheme , a CHC official said.

The share-holders of the CHC will continue to be shareholders of the new Company and the directors holding office at the time of its conversion will be the first directors of CHC Limited.

The Treasury Secretary with the approval of the Cabinet will be empowered to dispose of the remaining shares of the CHC other than ten per cent which will be distributed among the employees of the CHC and such shares will be vested in the ETF and EPF in the name of the employees, under the new Bill.