Harry Jayawardena
| Harry Jayawardena | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
17 August 1942 Ja-Ela, Sri Lanka |
| Residence | Ja-Ela, Sri Lanka |
| Nationality | Sri Lankan |
| Other names | D.H.S. Jayawardena |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Years active | 1977–present |
| Net worth |
 US$2.4 billion |
| Spouse(s) | Priya Jayawardena |
| Children | 3 |
| Website | stassengroup |
Don Harold Stassen Jayawardena (born 17 August 1942 in Ja-Ela, Sri Lanka), widely known as Harry Jayawardena, is one of the most prominent and successful Sri Lankan businessmen. He is currently the Chairman of the Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka PLC, Lanka Bell Limited Sri Lanka's only indigenously owned second largest fixed line telecommunications operator, and of the highly diversified Aitken Spence PLC. Jayawardena is also the Honorary Consul General for Denmark in Sri Lanka. He was listed as the richest person in Sri Lanka in 2008. His Founding Company Stassen Exports controls approx $1.4 billion in equity owning one of the leading banks in the country HNB valued at Rs. 84billion approx ($650m), Aitkenspence at Rs. 38billion ($260m) Distilleries Company Rs 82billion approx ($620million) and large amount of private companies. He is currently battling in Colombo Commercial High Court for his dispute with the founding members for controlling Share Ownership which through he owns all investments
After resigning from public service as the Tea Department Manager of state owned monopoly trading company State Trading Company Consolidated Exports Ltd, better known as Consolexpo, he pioneered the Stassen Exports Limited on 7 September 1977 as a company to export Ceylon Tea. This happened when Sri Lanka ventured to the free market economy with the induction of the then Sri Lankan President Junius Richard Jayewardene.
By 1988, Jayawardena's companies became a significant shareholder of the country's largest private commercial bank, Hatton National Bank. The companies significantly owned by Harry Jayawardena ventured into many other areas such as food and beverage with the acquisition of majority shares of then state owned Lanka Milk Foods(CWE) Limited in 1991 and later the Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka PLC [1] (DCSL) in 1992 in the then-largest transaction in the . In 2007 DCSL under Jayawardena's Chairmanship became the No. 1 listed company as per the "Business Today" Top 10 rankings. In July 2016, Harry Jayawardena made a bid to acquire Holcim Lanka Ltd. Harry along with Nandana Lokuwithana (Onyx Group) are the only Sri Lankans who were interested in Holcim acquisition. But both found to be unsuccessful in the bidding process.
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