Sri Lanka’s biggest mobile operator Dialog Telekom has entered into a $100 million deal with US-based International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector financing arm of the World Bank. Under the deal, IFC will lend $70 million to Dialog. Of the remaining $30 million, $15 million has already been given by IFC for a 1.6 per cent stake in Dialog purchased from Telekom Malaysia (which previously held 89 per cent stake in the company). The deal also allows IFC to buy shares worth $15 million in Dialog in the future. IFC is planning to invest around $200 million in Sri Lanka within the next two years to help local companies that are in the process of expanding overseas.
