Sri Lanka It's Happening

May 23, 2007

A couple of weeks ago there was intense speculation that Dialog was out to buy Suntel the CDMA operator. No surprises there Dialog has been struggling to get their CDMA service off the ground. But they came out with press release strongly denying the rumor. After a that a new story emerged; Telekom Malaysia (owners of Dialog) was after Suntel. In the end it seems that John Keells Holdings has beaten the others to it and already acquired the company. But if they have they have not yet made a formal announcement about it.

Fany JKH getting into the Telecom business? But who would have thought the Distilleries corporation would by Lanka Bell. Less said about their venture into software the better. No doubt there will be a repeat performance with Suntel.

In the Meantime Telekom Malaysia has sold off 4% of their holding in Dialog (they sill have 80% in the only listed billion dollar company). Whilst all this was happening, dialog went XR yesterday. The rights issue, which happens to be the the most ambitious rights issue ever, is overpriced. It remains to be seen if they manage to pull it off.

In the midst of all this there is an uproar over the government and NTT trying to sell of part of their stakes in Sri Lanka Telecom. The JVP for it's part is furious because the potential owner is a Malaysian with Jaffna Tamil roots. The JVP hates, Tamils in general and Jaffna Tamils in Particular. They are particularly worried because the LTTE has a very strong presence in Malaysia. The oppressed Malaysian tamils do not seem to have what it takes to stand up to the Malaysian government so they are helping the LTTE instead.

Posted by raditha at May 23, 2007 3:42 AM