A Singapore based company has emerged as the largest investor in a Sri Lankan oil refinery project, with a record FDI of USD 3.85 billion USD. As per a report in The Hindu, the stakes in the company are held by family members of DMK leader and former union minister of state S Jagatrakshakan.
As per reports, Sri Lanka’s Board Of Investments has recently announced the record level investments in the Oil refinery project. In the announcement, Singapore based Silver Park International Pte Ltd, was announced as the highest investor.
As per reports, Sri Lanka’s deputy minister of international trade, Nalin Bandara, has recently announced that Silver Park International and Oman’s Ministry Of Oil and Gas will jointly develop the Oil Refinery. The FDI for the project is being cited as the highest ever in Sri Lanka.
The refinery is to be built over 237 hectares of land at a distance of 235 km from the country’s Chinese owned port, Hambantota.
In this, the Singapore firm, Silver Park International, will be reportedly putting 70% of the share capital, about 1887 million USD. The remaining amount of about 2000 million USD is to be raised as loan capital.
Silver Park International is reportedly owned by India’s Accord Group, a company established by Jagatrakshakan’s family.
However, the government of Oman has reportedly denied being a part of the deal, raising further questions about the FDI and the Singapore-based firm’s involvement in the project. Later, the Sri Lankan officials clarified that though the Government of Oman is yet to sign a deal with the Singapore firm, Oman Oil Company has registered their intention for a 30% stake and Silver Park International is confident of the implementation of the project.
As per a report in The Hindu, Silver Park International is registered with Singapore’s national regulator Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA). Three of the company’s four directors have addresses in Chennai, India. The Three directors are Jagatrakshakan Sudeep Anand, Jagatrakshakan Sri Nisha, and Jagatrakshakan Anusuya.
They are respectively the son, daughter, and wife of DMK leader S Jagatrakshakan. Jagatrakshakan has also been announced as DMK’s Lok Sabha candidate for the Arakonam constituency. He was previously a minister of state for commerce and industry in the UPA-II government.
Jagatrakshakan or his family members have not issued any comments in this regard so far. It is notable here that in July 2016, Income Tax officials had conducted raids on multiple locations related to the former minister. Officials had stated that tax evasion amounting to about Rs 200 crores was suspected. For several days, almost 300 officials had raided residences, offices and other establishments owned by the former minister.
