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.