CIC Holdings looking to reorganise, realign biz models to brave through ongoing crisis

CIC Holdings PLC, one of Sri Lanka’s leading diversified conglomerates, shared it is gearing up to face the massive economic challenges that are likely to impact operations in the coming months, as the inflationary pressures, dollar crisis and rupee devaluation would influence progress on multiple levels.

In an effort to brave through the locally made crisis that has emerged even before the implications stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic have eased, CIC Holdings said it is in the midst of exploring fresh options to ensure continuity and growth of the business.

“Our intention is to respond to this highly fluid environment by changing the narrative from reactive to proactive. We will seek to continuously reorganise and realign our business models to create future-ready, fit-for-purpose portfolios that will allow the group to deliver consistent results notwithstanding headwinds,” said CIC Holdings Chairman S.H. Amarasekere.

CIC Holdings Group CEO P.A. Seresinhe noted that it is becoming increasingly difficult to make any realistic forecasts regarding what can be expected in the coming months and years, given that Sri Lanka is on the brink of economic upheaval.

He shared that in these uncertain times, the CIC group would focus on building resilience through innovation and ongoing strategic realignment of business models in response to the market.

In the crop solutions sector, priority of CIC will be to develop expertise in technology-based sustainable agricultural methods, whereas in the agri produce cluster, the group will look to leverage on science-based technology to tap into the global superfoods trend.  Export orientation will be a major priority in its herbal/personal care segment as well.

“Equally importantly we will focus on proactively tackling supply chain disruptions in order to strengthen our industrial solutions and medical and pharmaceutical operations,” said Seresinhe.   In terms of capacity expansion, Seresinhe will revisit its plans across all business verticals taking cognizance of the economic downturn facing Sri Lanka at present.   “Our priority would be to ensure that as a group, we have in-built scalability as well as the external bandwidth to pivot and expand once economic recovery does eventually take place,” said Seresinhe.