Deals
Sri Lanka Seeks Investors for Airline With $1 Billion of Debt
- TPG Capital bid failed in 2017 after PE firm’s due diligence
- State-run carrier facing competition from Emirates, Etihad
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Sri Lanka has revived the process of privatizing the state-run carrier that is saddled with at least $1 billion of debt, a year after talks with sole bidder TPG Capital collapsed following due diligence of the struggling airline.
The island nation’s finance ministry will seek preliminary bids for SriLankan Airlines Ltd. by September or October, Mano Tittawella, an adviser to the ministry, said in an interview late Monday. There has been “fairly serious” interest in the sale, and the government expects to be in talks with at least two parties by the first quarter of next year, he said.