The Sri Lanka Ports Authority has discontinued a US$280 million joint venture with China Merchants Port Holdings and Access Engineering PLC, and will instead seek a private partner for a Colombo Port logistics hub through open competitive bidding.
The scrapped vehicle was the South Asia Commercial and Logistics Hub (SACLH), formed in 2023 to build a 150,000-square-metre logistics complex, EconomyNext reported. Its shareholding was China Merchants Port Holdings 70 per cent, SLPA 15 per cent and Access Engineering 15 per cent. The decision follows a review of external circumstances and commercial considerations.
Approximately $29.8 million in equity contributions will be refunded to shareholders in proportion to their holdings.
What replaces it
The SLPA said in a statement issued on 19 October that a new integrated logistics hub will be pursued through a Public–Private Partnership, by competitive bidding and subject to the relevant approvals, according to the Daily Mirror, which filed at 2.20 p.m.
The proposed facility would occupy a substantial land area inside the port and support port-related and value-added logistics activity. The stated aim is to move the Port of Colombo from being predominantly a container transshipment hub to a fuller maritime and logistics centre serving shipping lines, cargo owners and logistics operators. The authority expects the PPP structure to attract private investment, improve utilisation of port land and infrastructure, and generate long-term revenue.
The SLPA framed the discontinuation as “an opportunity to pursue an alternative development model,” saying it remains “firmly committed to positioning the Port of Colombo as a leading maritime, transshipment and logistics hub in South Asia.”
Two filings, two different stories
The two reports are worth reading together, because the Daily Mirror’s does not name what was cancelled. It describes only “the decision to discontinue an earlier joint venture project” — no counterparty, no value, no equity refund. A reader of that filing alone would learn that the Ports Authority is going to tender, but not that it has unwound a 70-per-cent Chinese-held venture to do so.
Context
The tender fits a pattern this desk recorded a week earlier. On 13 October, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake offered the East Container Terminal to a private operator while retaining state ownership of the asset. The SACLH decision applies the same formula to port land rather than to a terminal: the state keeps the ground, and the operator is chosen by tender rather than by a pre-formed joint venture.
Not reported
Neither filing says when the new tender opens, what the replacement project is expected to cost, whether China Merchants or Access Engineering may bid again, or what the “external circumstances” behind the review were. Neither gives a date for the SACLH equity refund, and neither reports comment from either former partner.
