Sampath Bank and LOLC were the two companies that submitted bids for a sizable Seylan Bank stake when the deadline for bids closed at the Central Bank (CB) on Thursday, industry officials said.
“All five parties who were shortlisted attended the due diligence and pre bid conference on May 1. We submitted our bids thereafter,” Harris Premaratne, CEO, Sampath Bank confirmed while LOLC officials were not available for comment on industry reports that LOLC was the other bidder.
The CB on Thursday said only two out of five companies interested in being a strategic partner of Seylan Bank had submitted bids when bids closed. It said the new investor at Seylan Bank will be announced on May 20. The CB didn’t name the two companies.
Earlier the CB said six prospective investors had submitted Expressions of Interest (EOIs) to be considered a strategic partner of Seylan Bank, and of this five institutions/enterprises had been shortlisted. They were John Keells Holdings PLC, Lanka ORIX Leasing Company PLC, National Development Bank PLC, Sampath Bank PLC and V. V. Karunaratne & Company.
Among them, NDB Bank said that they did not submit a bid. “We did a careful due diligence and took a very considered look at it and decided that on the terms that Seylan was offered, it did not fit NDB’s long term interest as well as shareholder interest,” Eran Wickramaratne, CEO NDB said.
The CB called for bids to take a more than 33 percent stake in Seylan Bank after the crisis at Golden Key shook most companies in the Ceylinco Group.
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