Distilleries shareholders say cheers to Melstacorp

Shareholders of the Distilleries Company (DCSL) yesterday at their Extraordinary General Meeting overwhelmingly approved the special resolution to make Melstacorp Ltd. the holding company of the Group.

The resolution was approved with 99.9987% voting in favour and 0.0013% voting against in the poll held.  

The EGM was convened on the orders of the Commercial High Court of Colombo based on an application made by DCSL Plc to restructure the group under the provisions of Chapter ‘X’ of the Companies Act No. 7 of 2007. 

According to the announcements made by the company to the Colombo Stock Exchange, DCSL Plc shares will continue to trade until the close of trading on 30 September 2016. 



The shareholders who hold shares of the company on that day will receive four shares of Melstacorp Ltd. in place of each DCSL share held. 

Once the swap is completed Melstacorp will become the holding company of DCSL Plc. Shares of Melstacorp Ltd. are expected to be listed and are likely to commence trading in October.   

DCSL Plc has a market capitalisation of Rs. 80 billion. Melstacorp Ltd. is also the holding company of Lanka Bell Ltd, Continental Insurance Lanka Ltd, Melsta Regal Finance Ltd, Balangoda Plantations Plc and Browns Beach Hotels Plc. 

It also owns a significant percentage of shares in Aitken Spence & Co. Plc and Madulsima Plantations Plc.

Harry Jayawardena is the Chairman of both DCSL Plc and Melstacorp Ltd. while Amitha Gooneratne is the Managing Director of Melstacorp Ltd.