Sumathi Holdings marked its 70th anniversary recently with a celebration in Colombo attended by more than 500 guests from Sri Lanka’s business, government, financial and media communities. Held under the theme “70 Years of Sumathi Legacy”, the evening looked back to 1956, when founder U.W. Sumathipala opened Sporting Star’s first betting shop on Maliban Street, [...]
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Sumathi Holdings marked its 70th anniversary recently with a celebration in Colombo attended by more than 500 guests from Sri Lanka’s business, government, financial and media communities. Held under the theme “70 Years of Sumathi Legacy”, the evening looked back to 1956, when founder U.W. Sumathipala opened Sporting Star’s first betting shop on Maliban Street, Pettah – the business from which the group grew.
The programme included an address and toast by Group Chairman Jagath Sumathipala, the unveiling of the 70th anniversary logo, and addresses by Directors Chadu Sumathipala and Chathula Sumathipala, the company said in a media release.
The elder Mr. Sumathipala built Sporting Star into one of the country’s leading bookmakers and established it as the market leader. He also expanded into cinema, supporting the growth of the Sri Lankan film industry and into gems.
After his passing in 1979, Jagath Sumathipala joined the business at the age of 19 and was supported by his maternal uncle, Mr. Dharmasiri. His first assignment was to create the group’s own race paper, which he turned into a commercial printing company. He moved the main office from Maliban Street to Chatham Street and carried forward his father’s gem business. When his brother, Thilanga Sumathipala, returned from his studies in 1986, Jagath Sumathipala handed the racing operations over to him, and Thilanga Sumathipala built them further.
Following a restructuring in 2017, Jagath Sumathipala, together with the third generation, has shaped Sumathi Holdings into a Group of 11 principal businesses employing more than 2,000 people, across betting and gaming, healthcare, information technology, restaurants, security, printing, renewable energy, investments and film.
A third generation now leads the group alongside the Chairman. Chadu Sumathipala leads the group’s IT sector: he founded Mainframe, brought the group’s key systems in-house, built BetSS.com, and set up Sumathi IT’s drone division and its first research and development centre. Chathula Sumathipala leads the group’s services cluster and grew LifeServ built Sumathi Energy, whose projects include the 5MW Wewila solar plant and battery storage at Monaragala and Wewila.
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Print Edition – The Sunday Times, Sri Lanka
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