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Ada Derana

Ada Derana is a trilingual online news outlet under Derana Macro Entertainment (Pvt) Limited, which is a subsidiary of Power House Limited. The outlet partnered with Dialog Telekom in 2007 to deliver instant SMS news alerts. Presently, all mobile service providers offer Ada Derana news alerts. Additionally, Derana Macro Entertainment (Pvt) Limited launched Sri Lanka's first 24-hour TV channel known as Ada Derana 24X7. This channel is only available to subscribers of Dialog Television and PEO TV.

Key facts

Audience Share

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Ownership Type

Private

Geographic Coverage

International

Content Type

Free

Data Publicly Available

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

2 ♥

Media Companies / Groups

Power House Limited

Ownership

Ownership Structure

Derana Macro Enternatinment (Pvt) Limited is owned by Power House Limited. Dilith Jayaweera and Varuni Amunugama Fernando jointly own 49.41 percent of shares which makes them majority shareholders of Power House Limited. They also own 9.00 percent each as individuals.

Voting Rights

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Individual Owner

Group / Individual Owner

Dilith Jayaweera and Varuni Amunugama Fernando

Dilith Jayaweera and Varuni Amunugama Fernando jointly own 49.41 percent of shares at Power House, in addition to the 9 percent (each) they own separately.

49.4%
Media Companies / Groups
Facts

General Information

Founding Year

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Affiliated Interests Founder

Well-known entrepreneur Dilith Jayaweera and the daughter of Minister of Science, Technology, Research, Skills Development and Vocational Training and Kandyan Heritage Sarath Amunugama, Varuni Amunugama Fernando, co-founded Power House Limited, which owns Derana Macro Entertainment (Pvt) Limited. Presently, Derana Macro Entertainment (Pvt) Limited maintains Derana TV and FM Derana. Dilith and Varuni initially began their commercial ventures with an advertising agency, Triad (Pvt) Limited, while they were law students. Established in 1993, the agency was modelled as the country’s first local advertising house. In 2005, the agency gained prominence for running the advertising campaign of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s candidacy for the presidential election. Having established Triad (Pvt) Limited, Dilith and Varuni ventured into several other media-related businesses such as Power House Limited, formerly Power House (Pvt) Limited, which was incorporated in 2003, and Derana Macro Entertainment (Pvt) Limited, which was incorporated in 2008.

Jayaweera was named director of the Reefcomber in August 2010 after one of his subsidiary companies, Emagewise, purchased significant shares of the hotel named Reefcomber. In October 2010, the Reefcomber was re-branded as Citrus Leisure PLC and currently has hotels at three locations – Hikkaduwa, Waskaduwa and Colombo. Jayaweera remains a director at Citrus Leisure PLC today. In 2011, Jayaweera and another prominent businessman, Nimal Perera, were appointed to the board of directors after securing around 43 percent of shares at the George Steuart & Company Limited. Sitting as either chairman or on the board of directors of each of these company’s subsidiaries, Jayaweera is currently the Chairman of George Steuart Group as well. This includes a Finance company – George Seuart Finance Limited.

In 2015, The Colombo Magistrate Court approved an investigation into the financial transactions of Dilith Jayaweera, Nalaka Godahewa, Varuni Amunugama and Sarvajana Anandaraj Ameresekere over the alleged irregularities in the share transactions of Lanka Hospitals. Meanwhile, Jayaweera’s adverse relationships with media personnel such as the brother of the incumbent Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Chairperson of Telshan Networks (Pvt) Limited (TNL) Shan Wickremesinghe as well as Chairperson of The Capital Maharaja Organisation Limited R. Rajamahendran have received coverage in the Sri Lankan press. After allegations of stock market manipulation emerged, Jayaweera had reportedly warned to sue Shan Wickremesinghe, owing to allegations that Wickremesinghe’s channel TNL had telecasted views against Jayaweera. The lawsuit was dropped after Wickremesinghe issued an apology. Wickremesinghe’s daughter Ishini was closely linked to the operations of Jayawaeera’s Triad (Pvt) Limited previously. In 2015, Jayaweera's lawyers had reportedly warned to take legal action against R. Rajamahendran. A legal suit was to be filed claiming compensation of LKR 2 million (around USD 12,500) for defamatory statements allegedly aired on Rajamahendran's channel, Sirasa TV. However, Rajamahendran’s lawyers had also reportedly warned to counter-sue Jayaweera for LKR 20 billion (around USD 125 million) if Jayaweera proceeded with the suit.

Affiliated Interests Ceo

Madawa Mandawala is the CEO as well as a Director. He is listed as a shareholder at Power House Limited.

Affiliated Interests Editor-In-Chief

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Affiliated Interests other important people

Laksiri Wickramage serves as the Deputy Chairperson and Director. He holds 2 percent of Power House Limited, the parent company of Derana Macro Entertainment (Pvt) Limited.

Contact

Derana Macro Entertainment (Pvt) Limited

No. 320, T.B Jaya Mawatha, Level 4, Colombo 10

Tel: +945300800, +945300700

Fax: +942506226

Web Editor (English) : yusuf@derana.lk

Web Editor (Sinhala) : samans@derana.lk

Web Editor (Tamil) : bavan@derana.lk

Website: www.derana.lk

Financial Information

Revenue (in Mill. $)

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Operating Profit (in Mill. $)

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Advertising (in % of total funding)

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Market Share

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Further Information

Meta Data

The official website of Ada Derana does not provide adequate information about its organisational structure. As such, secondary sources were referenced. Information regarding ownership was gathered from the annual returns available at the Department of Registrar of Companies. The most recent data was available for the year 2015. While the Media Ownership Monitor research team reached out to Powerhouse Limited by formally requesting for the company’s information on 20 July 2018, the company did not respond to the aforementioned request.

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