Mr. Nahil Wijesuriya, who recently bought 53.534% of Hotel Services (Ceylon) Limited, owners of the Ceylon Continental Hotel, has effected this acquisition through a company called Green Care International Limited, Hotel Services has said in a Stock Exchange filing.

The seller was Mr. U.K. Sharma who sold slightly over 9.4 million Hotel Services shares on April 9 at a price of Rs.138 per share.

As reported in this newspaper last week, Wijesuriya intends increasing his stake in Hotel Services by taking more of Sharma’s shares although Sharma has indicated that he will continue to hold 2 million shares of the company "for sentimental reasons."

Sharma held over 97.3% of Hotel Services shares with a further 0.7% in the name of S.R. Sharma.

Between 200 to 300 small shareholders own 2% of the company.

Wijesuriya’s total purchases of Hotel Services amounted to approximately 55% with the first purchase of a little under 2% followed by a second block of 53.5%.