Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Colombo Dockyard’s majority shareholder, Onomichi Dockyard of Japan, recently divested 51% of its shares to an Indian shipyard. 

The transaction, I am informed, was carefully structured by Sri Lankan legal and financial professionals, without ministerial influence. 

The final stage is now underway, with additional shares being issued to existing shareholders. This development brought back memories.

 At the time of privatization, the Government had offered 10% of the shares to the Dockyard workers. However, when 

I took over the Shipyard under Japanese management, more than a year after privatization, those shares had still not been released.

 I personally met the then Interim President, the late D. B. Wijetunga, and persuaded him to ensure the release of the shares that were being held by banks and other entities. 

When the matter was finally resolved, I had the privilege of handing over the share certificates to the workers myself.

 It remains one of the moments I am most proud of. Today, nearly 25 years later, I visited the Central Depository System (CDS) to make payment and apply for additional shares under the new investor’s offer. 

There, I met a retired Colombo Dockyard employee—one of those very workers—struggling to understand how to register with a stockbroker. 

 Without hesitation, I offered to help. I called a stockbroker I knew and arranged assistance for him. 

 As I watched him leave, I remembered the day I handed him his original share certificate all those years ago.

 It felt like a full circle. 

 And I returned home quietly happy—knowing that even in small ways, doing the right thing endures longer than titles, transactions, or ownership changes.

Regards

Dr Sarath Obeysekera