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Government to go ahead with sale of failed hotel project
27 May, 2025
Sri Lanka’s leftist government said it was selling a failed hotel project, marking its first privatisation move in line with an IMF bailout.
Government spokesperson Nalinda Jayatissa said the cabinet had agreed to revive the previous administration’s stalled process “of disposing of shares in Canwill”, a fully state-owned company established in 2011 to operate hotels.
The sale of Canwill marks the first major privatisation under the government of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, a self-avowed Marxist.
Jayatissa told reporters the government had decided to retain Deloitte, a leading professional services firm, to manage the sale.
The government said Canwill, with an issued capital of US$61 million, needed at least another US$120 million to complete its 47-storey, partially built, 458-room beachfront hotel in Colombo.
With no prospect of raising the capital to complete the project, the new administration decided to divest the asset instead.
The company also owns another beach property in the south of the island. (AFP)
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