Govt. to discuss EOIs for SriLankan with partners by Jan 2017
View(s):The Government will be discussing with potential partners for SriLankan Airlines interested in its restructure by next January after sorting out the Expressions of Interest (EOI). ”We extended the EOIs’ closing date till end of this month. By about end of September to October we’ll be collecting the EOIs. Once we go through them, we aim to have serious discussions with the potential partners by January next year,” Eran Wickramaratne, Deputy Minister Public Enterprise Development told the Business Times. The ministry ran adverts in national newspapers last month calling for EOI in the national carrier. Meantime Public Enterprise Development Minister Kabir Hashim said they anticipate more offers apart from the eight they already got.
“The response is encouraging.” He was quoted in the media recently as saying that Japan’s ANA is interested in the national carrier. Sources said that a Chinese and a Middle Eastern carrier have also expressed interest, but both ministers couldn’t confirm this. Mr. Wickramaratne said that on Thursday the IMF had a progress meeting on the status of the airline along with NSB, which is coordinating the financial advisory to restructure it and financial and transaction advisors – BNP Paribas and KPMG. “The IMF, as is the practice, had an airline specialist for this meeting.” He added that the airline’s ground handling unit will be valued separately. “Going forward, we’ll be separating this unit,” he added. -(DEC)