Sri Lanka's Largest Conglomerate Eyes Africa for Expansion

Softlogic Group, one of Sri Lanka's largest conglomerates, is eyeing Africa for expansion. The group, which deals in ICT, healthcare, retail, financial services, automobile, and leisure, rose in revenue by 14 percent to Rs.75.1 billion in the latest financial year against Rs.66 billion in 2017/18 while gross profit rose to Rs.27.6 billion from Rs.23. 6 billion.

"There is significant scope for expanding our internationally certified healthcare services into neighbouring countries with positive outcomes while African markets demonstrate potential for insurance products. Understandably we are excited by our next growth phase as we seek to position the Softlogic Group as a leading player in the region in selected sectors," Softlogic Group Chairman/Managing Director Ashok Pathirage said. 

The group has delivered aggressive growth over the year by financing its acquisitions and expansion with debt. Mr. Pathirage said that higher levels of debt relative to peers have been part and parcel of their risk profile which has been proactively managed with forethought and foresight as evinced by managed exits to realise cash flow in the recent past. “We are evaluating several options for reducing debt and are likely to deploy several strategies to achieve a satisfactory outcome to improve the financial gearing of the group,” he said.

In 2019, Softlogic restaurants ranked among Asia's best work places. The brand of restaurants includes franchises of global brands like Burger King, Baskin Robbins, and Délifrance. Softlogic is looking to replicate their success in Sri Lanka not just in Africa, but in the rest of Asia as well. 

Header Image Credit: Ada Derana Biz