COLOMBO: Re-audited accounts of Sri Lanka’s Agalawatte Plantations have revealed over Rs4.5 billion accumulated losses and liabilities with the new owners of the firm promising legal action against those responsible for the swindle. “This catastrophic situation faced by the company had risen as a direct result of misappropriation of the company’s assets by the previous management and pure negligence in maintaining the state-owned assets leased to the company,” D R Investment (Pvt) Ltd. said in a stock exchange filing. Re-audited accounts of Agalawatte Plantations show losses at over Rs1.2 billion and outstanding liabilities at over Rs3.3 billion as at December 2016 with the group’s net worth negative, it said.
D R Investment (Pvt) Ltd., an investment firm that’s part of the Damro furniture manufacturing group, said it would ask the government to extend the lease on Agalawatte estates and more time to settle outstanding lease rentals. It also intends asking banks to restructure loans and write off outstanding interest payments and would also inject Rs1 billion as share capital by way of a rights issue. The new management will also take legal action against the previous management for misappropriation of funds during their tenure and use the money to settle outstanding liabilities.
The value of several assets would need to be impaired including Rs106 million spent to build a tea museum at Labookellie estate “to exhibit the private assets of the former chairman,” the stock exchange filing said. The Damro group last month bought Agalawatte Plantations from the Browns group which has acquired it in 2016 from the Mackwoods group with a legal battle erupting between former chairman Chris Nonis and other family members for control of the firm.
