Nation Lanka Finance said in June that the company was compelled to explore alternative investors, to meet the prevailing enhanced core capital requirement.

“The Company has been able to identify a strategic Investor, who has agreed to invest a sum of Rs.2.5 Bn in the Company out of which a sum of Rs.500,000,000/- has been now deposited as an initial investment, as an expression of interest,” it said in a stock exchange filing.

It didn’t name the investor.“The Company is expected to attend to all formalities, negotiations, modalities, execution of Agreement etc. with the strategic Investor, to reach the final consensus, upon which the Company would commence the obligatory statutory requirements of the regulated bodies to seek the approval for the proposed investment.”

A further disclosure would be made ‘no sooner a finality is reached’, Nation Lanka Finance said. In June the finance company said it was delaying a sale of its shares to pre-selected individuals, a private placement, due to various circumstances; and that the postponement was leading to an erosion of capital.