CIC Holdings has told the Colombo Stock Exchange that its associate company Akzo Nobel Paints Lanka is not part of a regional divestment announced by its Dutch parent, EconomyNext reported.

The clarification follows AkzoNobel N.V.’s disclosure that it plans to sell its South East Asia Decorative Paints business to Nippon Paint Holdings Co., Ltd.

“AkzoNobel N.V. has confirmed that the proposed divestment does not include AkzoNobel N.V.’s stake in ANPL which remains outside the scope of the transaction,” CIC Holdings said in a market filing.

AkzoNobel N.V. holds 50.63% of the issued voting shares of Akzo Nobel Paints Lanka (Private) Limited, through Imperial Chemical Industries Limited.

What is being sold, and where

AkzoNobel said last week it had entered into agreements to sell its Decorative Paints business in seven countries — Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Papua New Guinea and Australia — to Nippon Paint for around US$1.35 billion.

Sri Lanka does not appear on that list. The business unit changing hands is defined by region rather than by brand, which is consistent with a South Asian operation falling outside it, though no filing states the reason in those terms.

Why the filing matters locally

CIC Holdings is listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange, and Akzo Nobel Paints Lanka is one of its associate companies. A change of ultimate parent at the Sri Lankan operation would have been material to CIC shareholders — which is why the company put the exclusion on the record rather than leaving the regional announcement to be read as covering Sri Lanka too.

Not reported

The filing does not give the value of AkzoNobel’s stake in the Sri Lankan company, say why that stake was left out of the regional transaction, or state whether CIC Holdings’ own shareholding in ANPL is affected in any way. It does not say whether AkzoNobel intends to retain the holding long term.

EconomyNext links the underlying CIC Holdings announcement on the CSE’s own document portal; that file could not be retrieved from this desk, so the filing is reported here as EconomyNext quotes it.

A single-source report

No other verified newsroom reachable from this desk had filed on the Sri Lankan angle at the time of writing. Searches of the Daily FT, the Island, Lanka Business Online, the Daily Mirror’s business desk and the Sunday Times returned only earlier, unrelated AkzoNobel and CIC coverage. The account rests on EconomyNext, which quotes the company’s own stock exchange filing directly.

Source: EconomyNext.