India’s interest in SL’s SOEs continues

•  Majority of bidders prequalified for RFP stage are from India 

India continues to show interest in Sri Lanka’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The majority of the bidders for the government-owned Canwill Holdings (Pvt.) Ltd are from the neighbouring giant.
While a total of six companies have prequalified as bidders for the divestiture of the government’s shares in Canwill Holdings, five are from India and one is from Sri Lanka.
The State-Owned Enterprises Restructuring Unit of the Finance Ministry shared that the prequalified bidders are RKG Fund 1-Scheme of RKG Trust (India), Gland Celsus Bio Chemicals Private Limited (India), DB Realty Limited (India), Jindal Films India Limited (India), Bright Star Investment Limited (India), Consulting Engineers and Contractors (Pvt.) Ltd and K.D.A. Weerasinghe &  Co. (Pvt.) Ltd (Sri Lanka).
The bidders were evaluated by the terms and conditions set out in the Request for Expressions of Interest (EOIs), in compliance with the Special Guidelines on Divestiture of State-Owned Enterprises, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers in July 2023. 

Accordingly, the Cabinet-Appointed Special Project Committee (SPC) and Special Cabinet-Appointed Negotiating Committee (SpCANC) prequalified the six bidders for the Request for Proposal.
The government, acting through the Finance, Economic Stabilisation and National Policies Ministry, called for EOIs from potential investors for the divestiture of its shares in Canwill Holdings. The deadline for the submission of EOls was December 12, 2023.
Deloitte India is the transaction advisor for the divestiture of shares held by the government in Canwill Holdings (Pvt.) Ltd.