Asiri Hospitals shows interest in buying Lanka Hospitals

Dec 07, 2015 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Softlogic‘s flagship hospital chain Asiri Hospitals Holdings Plc had shown interest in buying Lanka Hospitals stake, the company said in a filing to stock exchange. “Softlogic’s flagship hospital chain Asiri Hospitals Holding Plc being the leading private sector healthcare provider in Sri Lanka wish to announce that we have expressed our interest in perusing the opportunity of acquiring the selling stake in Lanka Hospitals corporation Plc owned by the government of Sri Lanka as per the procedure related to divestiture of same by the Government of Sri Lanka.” Sri Lanka’s diversified conglomerate Hemas Holdings also expressed that the company is interested in acquiring a stake of state-owned Lanka Hospitals Corporation. As at the end of last year, 54.61 percent of Lanka Hospitals Corporation was owned by Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation and 28.66 percent was owned by Fortis Global Healthcare Holdings private limited. Lanka Hospitals Corporation posted a net profit of 510 million rupees for the last year compared to 677 million rupees recorded in the previous year. Basic earnings per share of Lanka Hospitals Corporation which commenced operations in 2002, under the name of Apollo Hospitals was 2.28 rupees in 2014. The Government is to exit partially or fully from investments in Lanka Hospitals, Colombo Hilton, Hyatt Residencies, Waters Edge, Grand Oriental Hotel, Ceylinco Hospital and Mobitel by listing such investments in the CSE during 2016.