Dialog to acquire entry stake in DCL
Dialog Axiata PLC (Dialog) is to acquire 26% entry stake of newly
formed Digital Commerce Lanka Pvt Ltd, which owns Anything.lk, an
e-commerce operator in Sri Lanka for a value of $ 1.59 million.
The company said in a stock exchange filing that it is hoping to
expand its presence in the online commerce and trade segments with the
investment in Digital Commerce Lanka. The remaining shareholding of DCL
is held by the shareholders of the Anything Pvt Ltd.
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 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 classified 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 Thilan Wijesinghe,
Director and shareholder of Anything Pvt Ltd.
Dialog Axiata PLC will be represented on the board of Directors of
DCL by 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 specialist from the Dialog group.
Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya , Group Chief Executive for Dialog Axiata PLC
said that Dialog has made significant improvements in the e-commerce
business in Sri Lanka over the past years through its various online
businesses including iBuy, Tradenet and myTrader.
We are confident that we can contribute to this partnership 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 main stream and will succeed in extending the benefits of
online commerce to a wide and plural segment of Sri Lankan consumers. |