Hayleys among firms interested in taking over state plantations

Hayleys PLC, NMK Holdings and Hettigoda Industries are among companies that have expressed interest in taking over state-owned plantations and have sent proposals under the request for proposals by the Public Enterprises Ministry, informed sources say.

Altogether the Government has received 36 proposals for areas of 50 acre land extent and worth Rs. 100 mil- lion or more.

These proposals have been forwarded to the National Agency for Public Private Partnership (NAFPPP) under the Finance Ministry to expedite the required agreements in consultation with the Attorney General’s Department, a NAFPPP source told Business Times. “The proposals to NAFPPP are on maximising productivity and plans to make them efficient and we want to go for multiple partnerships. The positive side is that there has been huge interest from locals, big companies wanting to take over parts of the companies and do various projects,” he said.

NAFPPP was set up to select projects based on the public-private partnership collaboration, their implementation and to provide guidance to the ministries and other Government institutions in respect of such projects. It has additional powers to identify suitable projects based on feasibility studies and maintain a ‘project pipeline’ in consultation with government ministries.

Under the ministry there are five plantation companies – Elkaduwa, Janatha Estate Development Board (JEDB), Sri Lanka Estate Plantations Corporation ( SLSPC), Chilaw Plantations Ltd and Kurunegala Plantations Ltd. Of this Elkaduwa, JEDB and SLSPC are tea based and the other two are coconut based.

Elkaduwa, Chilaw and Kurunegala Plantations have all turned around and have managed to slash costs and as a result are more efficient, a ministry source told the Business Times. He added that apart from the 20,000 hectares (ha) of productive agricultural lands under these plantations, there are 38,000 ha of land out of which 15,000 ha are non productive and which can be allocated for tourism, or renewable energy projects.

Altogether the Government has received 36 proposals for areas of 50 acre land extent and worth Rs. 100 million or more