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FM Derana

FM Derana is a Sinhala language radio station that was founded in 2009. It is managed by Derana Macro Entertainment (Pvt) Limited, which also maintains Derana TV. Presently, the parent company of Derana Macro Entertainment (Pvt) Limited is Power House Limited. Dilith Jayaweera and Varuni Amunugama Fernando hold the majority of shares at Power House Limited. Having an audience reach of 14.31 percent, FM Derana features 15-minute news segments on a daily basis, in addition to other programmes such as talk shows and radio-drama series. In 2011, FM Derana was the official radio station that broadcasted the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup.

Key facts

Audience Share

14.31%

Ownership Type

Private

Geographic Coverage

National

Content Type

Free to air

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 the majority shareholders of Power House Limited. They also own 9.00 percent each as individuals.

Voting Rights

Missing Data.

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 Limited, in addition to the 9 percent (each) they own separately.

49.4%
Media Companies / Groups
Facts

General Information

Founding Year

2009

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 a significant amount of shares at the hotel. 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 and Company Limited. Sitting as either Chairperson or on the board of directors, Jayaweera is currently the Chairperson of the George Steuart Group as well. This includes a finance company – George Steuart Finance Limited.

In 2015, the Colombo Magistrate Court approved an investigation into the financial transactions of Dilith Jayaweera, Nalaka Godahewa, Varuni Amunugama Fernando and Sarvajana Anandaraj Ameresekere over the alleged irregularities in the share transactions of Lanka Hospitals. After such claims emerged, Jayaweera had reportedly warned to sue the brother of the incumbent Prime Minister and the Chairperson of Telshan Networks (Pvt) Limited, Shan Wickremesinghe. This was owing to allegations that Wickremesinghe’s channel, TNL, had telecasted views against Jayaweera. The lawsuit was dropped after Wickremesinghe had reportedly issued an apology. Wickremesinghe’s daughter Ishini was also closely linked to the operations of Jayaweera’s Triad (Pvt) Limited previously. In the same year, Jayaweera's lawyers had reportedly warned to take legal action against the Chairperson of The Capital Maharaja Organisation Limited, 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 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

Power House Limited

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

Tel: +945300800, +945300700

Fax: +942506226

Website: http://fmderana.lk/

Financial Information

Revenue (in Mill. $)

Missing Data

Operating Profit (in Mill. $)

Missing Data

Advertising (in % of total funding)

Missing Data

Market Share

Missing Data

Further Information

Meta Data

The official website of FM Derana does not detail its organisational structure. It is also difficult to determine whether Power House Limited or Derana Macro Entertainment (Pvt) Limited own the license to the radio station. Information on the shareholders was gathered through the annual returns available at the Department of Registrar of Companies. The most recent data was available for the year 2015. Listenership data was obtained from the Kantar Lanka Market Research Bureau (LMRB) for the year 2017 (January- November). 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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