Type Public Website Official website Founded 1870 | Traded as CSE: JKH.N0000 Headquarters Colombo, Sri Lanka Subsidiaries Ceylon Cold Stores | |
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Industry Transportation
Hospitality industry
Entertainment
Retail
Logistics
Financial Services
Information Technology Key people Susantha Ratnayake -Chairman/CEO
Ajith Gunewardene -Deputy Chairman
Ronnie Peiris -Group Finance Director
Franklyn Amerasinghe-Director
Tarun Das -Director
Dr. Indrajit Coomarsawamy -Director
Ashroff Omar - Director
Amal Cabraal - Director
Nihal Fonseka - Director
Ms.Premila Perera - Director Revenue 91, 582 million Sri Lankan rupee (2014) CEO Susantha Ratnayake (Jan 2006–) | ||
John Keells Holdings PLC (JKH) is Sri Lanka’s largest listed conglomerate in the Colombo Stock Exchange. From managing the largest number of hotel rooms in Sri Lanka to owning the largest private-sector-owned transportation business in the country, providing port and marine fuel services to IT solutions, manufacturing of food and beverages to running a chain of supermarkets, tea broking to stock broking, banking to real estate, JKH has made its presence felt in virtually every major sphere of the economy. It began as a produce and exchange broker in the early 1870s.
JKH is a full member of the World Economic Forum, and having issued Global Depository Receipts on the Luxemburg Stock Exchange, was the first Sri Lankan company to be listed overseas.
History
The origins of John Keells Holdings lie in a produce and exchange broking business started by two Englishmen, Edwin and George John, in Colombo, Ceylon, in the early 1870s. E. John & Co. was one of a handful of broking companies that helped build tea production and export into the mainstay of the colonial Ceylonese economy. In 1948, the year of Ceylon's Independence, E. John & Co. merged with two London-based broking companies to form the private limited company of E. John, Thompson, White & Co. Ltd. Business opportunities in a fledgling post-Independence economy spurred growth and expansion throughout the Fifties and Sixties. The name that is now synonymous with Sri Lankan business leadership came into existence following the acquisition of another Colombo broking company, Keell & Waldock Ltd, in 1960, the resulting entity being named John Keell Thompson White Ltd. As Ceylon modernized, becoming the Republic of Sri Lanka in 1972, social and political change helped drive John Keells' expansion and diversification. The growing economic importance of travel and tourism was reflected in the acquisition of Walkers Tours & Travels, the leading inbound tour company of the time, and the Mackinnons' Group, which had extensive interests in shipping. Thus began a process of diversification that has resulted in today's 70-member conglomerate. The parent firm, now known as John Keells PLC, became a public quoted company in 1974. The merged entity was known as John Keell Thompson White Ltd.
In October 1986 a newly incorporated John Keells Holdings Ltd. (JKH) acquired a controlling stake in John Keells Limited and obtained a quotation on the Colombo Stock Exchange Colombo Stock Exchange amidst a heavily over-subscribed public share issue.