Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka Group on Thursday signed a share purchase agreement with Lanka Bell to buy 76 percent of the telco. The deal will go through Milford Holdings (Pvt) Ltd – a unit of Distilleries Group.
"Milford Holdings (Pvt) Ltd signed a share purchase agreement with a consortium of shareholders who together own 76 percent of the issued capital of Lanka Bell (Pvt) Ltd," Damien Fernando, Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka's Finance Manager told the stock exchange in a statement.
"According to this agreement, Milford Holdings (Pvt) Ltd will be purchasing the said shares as and when the requirements of the share purchase agreements are fulfilled," he said.
Lanka Bell, the smallest of the two privately held private local loop operators, currently has over 52,000 subscribers.
Owned by Singapore's Transmarco, Lanka Bell recently rolled US$ 40 million expansion plan to connect rural Sri Lanka using low cost CDMA (Code division multiple access) technology on the 800 Mhz band.