Touchwood is “forever” but without an office, says Kiwlegedara
Touchwood would re-commence operations in early June this year although the location of its new office remains a mystery as its chief Lanka Kiwlegedara admitted on Friday that the publicly announced address was indeed a bogus one.
Mr. Kiwlegedara admitted during an interview with the Business Times that they do not have an office from which the Touchwood company is operating from at present. In this respect, he pointed out that the Nawala address was not correct and it was “verbally” informed to the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE)” but was not aware as to why this was not made public.
However, he claims that while they do not have an office they had recruited at least 15 on the staff of the new Touchwood company with an altogether new management. The board comprises Mr. Kiwlegedara, Anuradha Bandaranayaka, Upul Peiris and the Maloneys (since it was not possible to leave them out due to the ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission inquirySEC) against the two), he explained. Mr. Kiwlegedara said they were awaiting the court decision (on a winding up application) due next month prior to re-commencing operations of the new company. He noted that they would be bringing in a foreign investor from one of his own ventures but all information on the whereabouts or name of the individual or company or country in which this overseas interest was coming from remained anonymous.
Commenting on the concerns of clients attempting to get in touch with him, it was stated that he could not be answering each and every call of even these clients that invested small sums of money. But calling out to all investors in Touchwood, he said, “don’t be frightened because Touchwood is forever.” The chief at Touchwood said that he would incurring personal expenses to the running of the company and had sought foreign investment since local banks were averse to lending due to the negative media reports. Mr. Kiwlegedara pointed out that while it would incur a cost of at least Rs.5 million for a new office, he said they were working on the re-structuring plans for Touchwood. Asking not to be attacked in the media, he lamented that he had undertaken a company which the Maloneys had “nethi naasthi karala thiyana company ekak (wasted).”