ECONOMYNEXT – The Official Credit Committee (OCC) which is involved with Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring has agreed to the island nation’s proposal for the state-owned Srilankan Airlines’ debt repayment, Treasury Secretary Harshana Suriyapperuma said.
SriLankan had issued a sovereign guaranteed 175 million dollar bond to raise cash as the firm made losses after the then President Mahinda Rajapasksa ousted Emirates as the managing shareholder.
The Airlines last month informed the market that pending OCC approval, it had restructured the defaulted bonds with a 15 percent haircut which will exchange for cash and a 4.00 percent amortizing government bond.
“We are very grateful and happy to inform that OCC has formally conveyed their position of no objection in turn to in order to support Sri Lanka, particularly considering the difficult situation Sri Lanka is in right now,” Treasury Secretary Suriyapperuma said in a recorded video disseminated to the media.
“OCC has indicated to us that they have no objection to Sri Lanka proceeding on the basis that we have chosen in terms of the settlement arrangements that we have shared with them.”
“So this is yet another important milestone for Sri Lanka in order to finalize all the other remaining agreements in terms of the debt restructuring. As a percentage, we have reached well about 90 percent in terms of the restructured values.”
Related: SriLankan Airlines restructures defaulted bonds with 15-pct haircut
He also said Sri Lanka is continuously engaging with the other governments and other stakeholders to identify possible avenues and finalize the remaining debts.
“There are a few more steps in the process. We believe these are procedural and we should be able to with the support and blessings of all the parties involved, we should be able to complete them within a short period of time.”
The SriLankan last month said the “parties expect to be able to implement the transaction by the end of the year” once OCC approved the proposal. (Colombo/December 19/2025)