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Wijeya Newspapers Limited

Wijeya Newspapers Limited

Wijeya Newspapers Limited (WNL), formerly known as Wijeya Publications Limited, was founded in 1979 by Ranjit Sujiva Wijewardene, also known as Ranjit Wijewardene. He is the son of well-known media owner D.R. Wijewardene. With the exception of Anandi Balasingham, all the other shareholders of the company are members of the Wijewardene family. Sarathi Limited, which is a company holding shares in WNL, is also owned by the Wijewardene family. The founder of WNL, Ranjith Wijewardene, served as the Chairperson of the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited (ANCL), his father’s company, before it was nationalised in 1973. After commencing WNL, Ranjith Wijewardene launched several newspapers in Sinhala, Tamil and English: Irida Lankadeepa (1986), Sunday Times (1987), Lankadeepa (1991) and Daily Mirror (1999). Other publications owned by WNL include: Ada, Bilindu, Daily Financial Times (Daily FT), GO: Guys Only, Hi!!, LW (Lanka Woman), Mirror Sports, Pariganaka, Sirikatha, Tamil Mirror, Tharunaya, Vijey and Wijeya.

Key facts

Business Form

Private

Legal Form

Limited Liability Company

Business Sectors

Publishing, TV broadcasting, real estate, tourism, recruitment consultancy

Ownership

Individual Owner

Media Outlets
Other Media Outlets

Other Print Outlets

Daily Mirror (0.55%)

Other TV Outlets

Hi TV (Missing Data)

Other Online Outlets

Facts

Business

Printing and publishing houses

Stamford Lake (Pvt) Limited

Real estate

LH Plantations (Pvt) Limited

Tourism

Ranweli Holiday Village Limited

Recruitment Consultancy

Sarathi Ltd

Technology

Wijeya Graphics (Pvt) Limited

General Information

Founding Year

1979

Affiliated Interests Founder

Ranjit Sujiva Wijewardene, also referred to as Ranjit Wijewardene, is the son of Sri Lankan media proprietor D.R. Wijewardene, who founded the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited (ANCL, also known as Lake House) in 1926, prior to its nationalisation under Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s government in 1973. Ranjit serves as the founding Chairperson and majority shareholder of Wijeya Newspapers Limited. Although the company was formed in 1979 under the name of Wijeya Publications Limited, it started publishing weekly Irida Lankadeepa newspaper in 1986, and shortly afterwards the daily Lankadeepa newspaper in 1991. He also holds 0.57 percent of shares at the ANCL. In addition to holding the position of a Chairperson at Wijeya Newspapers Limited, Ranjith also serves as the Chairperson & Managing Director at Lake House Printers & Publishers Ltd., Chairperson at Lake House Bookshop Pvt Ltd., Chairperson at LH Plantations Pvt Ltd., Chairperson at Ranweli Holiday Village Ltd., Chairperson at Sarathi Ltd., Chairperson at Stamford Lake Pvt Ltd., Chairperson at Wijeya Graphics Pvt Ltd., and President at Newspaper Society of Sri Lanka. Ranjith is also on the Board of Directors at Freudenberg & Co. (Ceylon) Ltd. and R.S. Printek Pvt Ltd.

Employees

Missing Data

Contact

Wijeya Newspapers Limited

No. 08, Hunupitiya Cross Road, Colombo 2

General: +9411 247 9479, +9411 231 4714

Fax: +94 11 244 8323

Website: www.wijeyanewspapers.lk

Tax/ ID Number

104081486-7000

Financial Information

Revenue (Financial Data/ Optional)

Missing Data

Operating Profit (in Mill. $)

Missing Data

Advertising (in % of total funding)

Missing Data

Management

Executive Board

Ranjit Sujiva Wijewardene – also referred to as Ranjit Wijewardene, the Chairperson at Wijeya Newspapers Limited (WNL) and owns 89.99 percent of shares in the company. He is also the current President of the Newspaper Society of Sri Lanka. In addition to owning shares at WNL, Ranjit owns 0.57 percent of shares at the state-owned Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited.

Further Information

Data Publicly Available

ownership data is easily available from other sources, e. g. public registries etc.

2 ♥

Meta Data

The official websites of Wijeya Newspapers Limited and its publications did not contain information on the organisational structure and key individuals. As such, this information was obtained by referencing secondary sources and the information sent by the company. The ownership structure of Wijeya Newspapers Limited was re-confirmed by the information gathered from the annual returns at the Department of Registrar of Companies. The most recent data was available for the year 2017. However, since the Department does not maintain individual profiles, it is not possible to ascertain all the companies affiliated with Wijeya Newspapers Limited. While the Media Ownership Monitor research team reached out to Wijeya Newspapers Limited by formally requesting for the company’s information on 20 July 2018, the company responded to the aforementioned request on 17 August 2018. Readership data was obtained from the Kantar Lanka Market Research Bureau (LMRB) for the year 2017.

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