Harry J fails in Asiri bid

Efforts by business tycoon Harry Jayawardena to take control of Asiri Hospital were botched after few shareholders responded to his offer to sell their stock.

The Asiri Surgical mandatory offer which closed on December 28 secured only 50,000 shares or 0.014 percent of the company, brokers said. Sri Lanka Insurance (SLI) together with D.K Subasinghe, a Jayawardena-backed shareholder in early December offered shareholders of Asiri Hospitals a price of Rs 7 to buy their stock.

This came on the back of Jayawardena acquiring Apollo Hospitals and acting in concert with Subasinghe to buy 20 percent in Asiri Surgical. Through these parties, Jayawardena raised his stake to 38 percent. Ashok Pathirage, Managing Director at both Asiri Hospitals and Asiri Surgical (Pvt) Ltd and owner of Softlogic, said this vote by the shareholders reinforces the fact that they are not in favour of Jayawardena controlling the hospital, as he had predicted earlier. “We are glad that the whole issue was handled in a professional manner,” he said. Softlogic owns nearly 23 percent in Asiri Hospitals and six percent in Asiri Surgical.

This is the second time that Jayawardena has failed to take over a company after his failed attempt at Sampath Bank, some years back.