Sale of SriLankan Airlines hangs in balance - report

Chairman of Sri Lanka's National People’s Power (NPP) Economic Council has hosed down media reports that the new government intends walk away from plans to sell a stake in SriLankan Airlines (UL, Colombo International), having decided the carrier is too important to be sold off or divested. Earlier this year, the administration of Ranil Wickremesinghe got as far as calling for expressions of interest in the loss-making airline but abandoned that program after suitable buyers failed to materialise. It then said it would pursue alternative divestment strategies to be disclosed after the September 21, 2024, presidential election. The 2024 Sri Lankan presidential election, held last month, saw the left-leaning politician Anura Kumara Dissanayake become the country's 10th president, defeating Wickremesinghe, who won just 17% of the vote. Dissanayake says he will honour the USD2.9 billion deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bail Sri Lanka out of the economic crisis, but he also wants to reduce the impact of austerity measures on the country's poorest citizens. He is also generally opposed to selling state-owned assets.<br/>