Sri Lanka Telecom

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SLT was partially privatized in August 1997 when the government sold a 35% controlling stake to Japan's Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (NTT) for $225 million. Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) had a 20 year license to operate nation wide basic telephone services (fixed telephony) on August 8, 1991 and was awarded monopoly rights over the international market until 2002. Services provided by SLT range from basic voice to advance data transmission services. In 2002, Mobitel, one of the mobile telecommunication operators in Sri Lanka, became a fully owned subsidiary of SLT. The acquisition of Mobitel made SLT the only integrated telecommunications service provider in Sri Lanka. In December 2002, Sri Lanka Telecom was listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange after the government sold a 12% stake or 216.54 million shares in an initial public offering for a total of US$ 56.2 million. NTT of Japan currently manages SLT under a 5-year agreement. As of June 2005, NTT owned 35.2 percent of SLT shares while the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) had 49.5 percent and employees & public had 15.3 percent. As of December 31, 2004, SLT served 87% of the market for fixed line operations providing a total of 860,468 Direct Exchange Lines. As of December 31, 2004, Mobitel had a customer base of 285,000. SLT invested SRs 7,379 million (US$ 70.4 million) for infrastructure and network development in 2004. In the fixed line operations, SLT competed with Suntel (Private) Limited and Lanka Bell (Private) Limited. Mobitel competed with three other mobile operators - Lanka Cellular Services (Pvt) Limited, MTN Networks, and Celltel Lanka Limited. On April 1, 2008, NTT sold their 35.2% holding in SLT to Global Telecommunications Holdings N.V. (GTH), a wholly owned subsidiary of Usaha Tegas Sdn. Bhd. of Malaysia at a price of Rs. 50.50 per share. Following the share trade by NTT Com, GTH announced a mandatory offer to the remaining shareholders which closed on June 2, 2008. At the close of the mandatory offer, GTH acquired an additional 9.78% of the stated capital of SLT, bringing GTH's total holding to 44.98%. The remaining shareholders were the Sri Lankan government (49.5%) and individual equity investors (5.52%). W.M.U. Mahamithawa, Accountant Corporate Strategy for Sri Lanka Telecom, mithawa@sltnet.lk http://www.slt.lk/inpages/aboutus_pages/profile.htm http://www.trc.gov.lk/fixed%20telephony.htm According to a July 2002 fax from the company, investment figures from 1998 to 2001 were as follows: 1998 US$203m 1999 US$215m 2000 US$115m 2001 US$44m 2009 capacity figure includes fixed (1,435,000) and mobile subscribers (3,400,000).