Sri Lanka national carrier to list flight kitchen

Oct 08, 2010 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's state-run national carrier SriLankan Airlines is planning to divest a part of its fully owned catering unit through a public listing, Chairman Nishantha Wickramasinghe said.



Earlier this week the government said it will divest a 49 percent stake in a gas distributor it planned to buy back from Royal Dutch Shell. "We are working on it," Wickramasinghe said.





"We have called for proposals from banks.



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Wickramasinghe said Sri Lankan Catering was also gearing up for expansion with another airport also planned in the south of the country.

The end of a 30-year war has brought more tourists and new airlines to Colombo's international airport in Katunayake.

SriLankan Catering is listed as having 3.

28 billion rupees in net assets in the parent's books.

Although the airline group is making losses the catering unit is profitable and had more than a billion rupees in revenues from outside the group in the year to March 2010.