{"id":134165,"date":"2023-05-04T15:27:26","date_gmt":"2023-05-04T22:27:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=134165"},"modified":"2023-05-04T15:27:26","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T22:27:26","slug":"finlays-sells-business-to-sri-lanka-tea-giant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2023\/05\/04\/finlays-sells-business-to-sri-lanka-tea-giant\/","title":{"rendered":"Finlays sells business to Sri Lanka tea giant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Nation Africa<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Sri Lankan firm Browns Investment Plc has bought an undisclosed stake in multinational tea firm James Finlay Kenya in a deal that will see locals hold a 15 percent ownership through a co-operative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finlay, with farms in Kericho and Bomet counties, will also retain the Saosa tea extraction facility, which will be used to source and process green leaves from outgrowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finlay Kenya\u2019s managing director, Simeon Hutchinson, said the deal would be completed in the next few months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We undertook a rigorous process when identifying a buyer for this unique business, prioritising what was best for James Finlay Kenya and its community,\u201d James Woodrow, Finlays group MD, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The multinational has had long-running disputes with local communities, trade unions and county governments over mechanisation of its tea estates, which resulted in massive layoffs of pluckers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read: <\/strong>Tea pickers seek Sh20bn from firm for work injuries<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the sales agreement Browns and Finlays have mutually agreed to acknowledge the long-standing support of the local community by selling 15 percent of shares in James Finlay Kenya to a locally owned co-operative,\u201d the firm said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Hutchinson said talks are ongoing with the unnamed co-operative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the sales deal would not affect the terms of current employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Browns is part of the LOLC Holdings conglomerate, which acquired Finlays tea estates in Sri Lanka two years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Nation Africa Sri Lankan firm Browns Investment Plc has bought an undisclosed stake in multinational tea firm James Finlay Kenya in a deal that will see locals hold a 15 percent ownership through a co-operative. Finlay, with farms in Kericho and Bomet counties, will also retain the Saosa tea extraction facility, which will be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}