SLI sends mandatory offer documents to Asiri shareholders

By Duruthu Edirimuni

Sri Lanka Insurance (SLI) together with D.K. Subasinghe, another Harry Jayawardena supporter and shareholder, last week sent an offer document to shareholders of Asiri Hospitals Private Limited to accept their mandatory offer for the hospital.

This came on the back of Jayawardena, acquiring Apollo Hospitals, acting in concert with Subasinghe to buy 20 percent in Asiri Surgical recently, bringing his stake to 38 percent and triggering a mandatory offer to acquire the hospital.

“We are presently getting an independent consultant to carry out a valuation of the company and send it to all shareholders,” Ashok Pathirage, Chairman Asiri Surgical (Pvt) Limited and Softlogic owner said. Pro Softlogic shareholders, Dr. S. Selliah, owns seven percent of Asiri Surgical, while Tissa Weerasingha owns nine percent.

He added that the present owners of the company will also send a separate letter to the shareholders making a case for not accepting the offer.

Softlogic owns nearly 23 percent in Asiri Hospitals and six percent in Asiri Surgical.

Jayawardena bought 20 percent from P. Pitipanarachchi, former chairman of the hospital, who had differences with Pathirage and the director board. “As a result at a board meeting he was ousted,” a company source said.

He added that a Asiri Surgical share is worth more than what SLI is offering it at, which is Rs.7.

Pathirage said that irrespective of the controversies, the Asiri Hospitals Group will invest Rs.600 million to put up a new state-of-the-art hospital in Kandy by early next year and will be keenly following their backward integration strategy to build more healthcare services in and around the country.