Colombo: Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) today said that it had sold its 35.2 per cent stake in state-owned Sri Lanka Telecom for 297 million dollars. The purchase by Malaysia's Global Telecommunications Holdings (GTH) NV ended the largest single investment in Sri Lank by a Japanese firm. Global, which also owns Maxis Communications of Malaysi, bought the shares at 47 US cents each making it the biggest single transaction ever conducted on the Colombo Sock Exchange (CSE), officials said.
Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) shares closed 16.4 per cent higher at 48.00 rupees today after Global said it would be willing to buy out the remaining shareholder at 50.50 rupees. Turnover in the CSE reached 310.3 million dollars, its highest ever, on the sale while the All Share Price Index gained 2.75 per cent or 70 points to close at 2,620.53.
"NTT will post a special profit of about 33.15 million dollars from the sale of the SLT stake," NTT said in a statement here. But a Sri Lankan brokerage placed a higher value on the gain. "(The sale means) NTT makes a capital gain of 75 million dollars after 10 years," said Arjuna Dassanayake from DFCC Stockbrokers, the selling broker of the deal. Global Telecommunications said it was looking forward to working with the government and other Sri Lankan institutions to expand SLT's business.
