Dialog expands ecommerce offering

Dialog Axiata PLC, Sri Lanka’s premier connectivity services provider on Sunday (09) announced it had entered in to an investment agreement with newly launched entity Digital Commerce Lanka (DCL), to acquire a 26% stake in the company. The remaining equity in DCL is held by the shareholders of Anything (Pvt) Ltd., Sri Lanka’s market-leading daily deals player and fastest growing e-commerce company.

Going forward, the joint venture company DCL will encompass and absorb the business operations and brand properties of Anything.lk and the e-commerce businesses of the Dialog Group. Accordingly, the joint venture will facilitate the merger of daily deals category leader Anything.lk, most visited online mall iBuy.lk, B2B and C2C trading portal Tradenet.lk and recently launched online classifieds site myTrader.lk. The merger of the category leading online businesses will yield an aggregated and unified e-commerce platform WoW.lk which would present Sri Lankan consumers with an unparalleled digital commerce experience spanning daily deals, branded store offerings, travel and leisure deals, B2B and C2C trading and the opportunity to buy and sell via an online classified service supporting Web, SMS and USSD mediums.

The Board of Directors of DCL will be chaired by Director and Shareholder of Anything Ltd Thilan Wijesinghe. Dialog Axiata PLC will be represented on the Board of Directors of DCL by Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya and Moksevi Prelis.

The formation of the joint venture will also see the transitioning of CEO Reeza Zarook and his management team at Anything.lk to DCL. The leadership team at DCL lead by Zarook will be further strengthened with key technology and e-business domain specialists from the Dialog Group.

Commenting on Dialog’s investment in DCL, Group Chief Executive for Dialog Axiata PLC Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya said “Over the past years, Dialog has made significant progress in Sri Lanka’s nascent e-commerce space through our various online businesses including iBuy, Tradenet and myTrader.  In line with our aggressive aspirations with respect to digital commerce, we now have the privilege of combining strengths with a category leading business, Anything.lk to create an all new online business experience for Sri Lankan consumers. Our vision is shared by the path breaking team of Sri Lankan on-line innovators and entrepreneurs at Anything.lk who enabled the company to secure a top slot in the e-commerce space within a year of start up. We are confident that we can contribute to this partnership with our experience and proficiency in innovation, connectivity and media technologies, service delivery and customer care. We also believe that this partnership will elevate e-commerce in Sri Lanka to the mainstream and will succeed in extending the benefits of online commerce to a wide and plural segment of Sri Lankan consumers.”

The entry level stake of 26% acquired by Dialog in DCL is valued at circa US$ 1.59 Mn, The investment by Dialog signifies and demonstrates the strategic intent of the Dialog Group to expand its presence in Sri Lanka’s digital commerce space and is billed to herald the formation of an online business power house built on collective strengths of the constituent businesses and the consumer assurance ethos inherent to the Dialog Group. In tandem with the investment in DCL, Dialog also entered in to a Shareholders Agreement (SHA) with the shareholders of DCL. The SHA, among other terms and conditions, provides an opportunity for Dialog to increase its stake in DCL over the ensuing period.