Indian Conglomerate to Buy Ports in Sri Lanka

The fourth largest conglomerate in India is interested in acquiring a stake in ports in Sri Lanka that has the potential to become a logistics hub for the region due to a strategic location on the main shipping route and logistics chain.

Anand Dikshit of PWC India said that approximately 15-20 billion dollars would be needed in the next few years for development of infrastructure including ports.

Manish Agrawal, also from PWC India, stated that a great deal of the required investment in infrastructure will have to come from private sector investors.

Although there is a fair bit of government investment and ODA (overseas development assistance) investment already going into some ports, a lot of investment actually comes from domestic investors who have nothing do to with infrastructure but who saw the opportunity and have taken the risk.

[mappress]

World Maritime News Staff, December 16, 2011