UK’s Lyca gets enjoining order against rejection for bidding for control of SLT and Lanka Hospitals

Lyca Group Founder and Chairman Allirajah Subaskaran

Lyca Group owned by Sri Lankan born Allirajah Subaskaran has gone to court against it being disqualified from bidding for the Government’s stakes in Sri Lanka Telecom and Lanka Hospital Corporation PLC.

Lyca Group companies were among those figured during the Request for Qualification (RfQ) stage of these two SOE divestitures but were rejected for the next stage of Request for Proposals. 

Lyca Group challenged the outcomes in the Court of Appeal which issued an interim order suspending further steps related to on-going transactions of these two divestitures until 12 March.

One petition was submitted by Lyca Mobile S.A.R.L. and Pettigo Comércio Internacional regarding Sri Lanka Telecom.

The other was submitted by Lyca Leasing Holding Ltd., and another entity regarding Lanka Hospitals PLC.

The applications were called up in the presence of the Court of Appeal Judge D.N. Samarakoon.

The petitioner companies claim to have submitted applications regarding the sale of 50.23% shares of Sri Lanka Telecom and 51.34% shares of Lanka Hospitals. 

They allege that the Cabinet Committee overseeing the restructuring of the State enterprise rejected their applications without providing reasons.

The petitions argued that the decision of the Cabinet Sub-Committee to reject the applications was arbitrary and unfair, violating the law.

After taking into account the submissions, the court decided to issue notice instructing Finance Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, State Minister for Finance Shehan Semasinghe, members of the Cabinet Sub-Committee for the restructuring of public enterprises, and the Attorney General, named as respondents in the petition, to present their arguments on 12 March.

Lyca was among eight parties who responded to the RfQ for Lanka Hospitals. Others were Asiri Hospitals, Hemas Hospitals, Sunshine Holdings and those from the UK and Malaysia. For Sri Lanka Telecom, apart from Lyca, the other parties were Jio Platforms Ltd. in Gujrat, India and Gortune International Investment Holding Ltd., a private equity firm out of China’s southern hub – Guangdong province.

President’s Counsel Kuvera de Soyza and a panel of lawyers represented the petitioner companies during the proceedings.