New board at Asia Hospital next week

The new owners of Asha Central Hospitals PLC, a consortium comprising Asiri Hospitals, Asiri Surgical and Softlogic Holdings will appoint the new board of directors by next week, Softlogic Group Chairman, Ashok Pathirage said.

“We will appoint the new board once the mandatory offer is made, which will be by next week,” Pathirage told The Sunday Times FT. The controlling stake of 82 percent in Asha Central Hospitals changed hands for 1.8 billion rupees on the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) on August 30 with the consortium buying up the long established private hospital sitting on a treasure trove of over 200 perches of land on Horton Place, Colombo 7 from Euroam Management Services (Pvt) Ltd.

In the Asha Central annual report for 2006/2007 issued two weeks back, Dr. Neville Fernando, its current chairman till a new board is reconstituted, gave elaborate plans for the new hospital planned at Norris Canal Road to be called The Central.

Asiri Hospitals had bought 43.046 percent of the approximately 82 percent of Asha Central on offer while Asiri Surgical took 29.45 percent and Soft Logic 9.06 percent.

Pathirage said that despite the consortium owning the hospital now Dr. Fernando had to comply with the legal requirement in writing the Chairman’s review and putting out the annual report. “There is a specific time period when the report has to be submitted to the shareholders of the company,” he explained. When asked whether Dr. Fernando’s plans still stand, he said that the new board will clarify at the AGM, to be held next Friday.

Asha Central posted a profit of Rs. 63.3 million for the year ended March 31, 2007, a substantial decline of over Rs. 105.6 Million reported for the previous year. The profit would have been much better if not for the finance charge of Rs. 42,576.288 due to the loans obtained to purchase 180 perches of land for the Norris Canal Road project.