Trade Secretary R M K Ratnayake says the government wants to appoint a liquidator to close the business.
Already about three parties have filed action against the firm. Ratnayake says the ministry is consulting the attorney general department on the possible future course of action.
The management of Sathosa Retail, was handed over to a consortium of private investors with a 40 percent stake as part of an exercise to restructure the CWE which accumulated more than 9 billion rupees of losses in the late 1990's.
The consortium which took-over the retail operations including Ceylon Biscuits and the Richard Pieris group later pulled out as labour unrest flared up and a rights issue to raise funds for a voluntary retirement scheme got bogged down with no state subscriptions following a change of