The business story
Born in Payagala in 1967; left an engineering programme at Moratuwa at 19 for business. Built a fortune from hawking, slot machines, his first casino (1993) and electronics, then a decades-long acquisition campaign: Pan Asia Bank (2000), LB Finance/Royal Ceramics/The Fortress (2003), Vallibel Finance (2005), controlling Hayleys PLC (2008), Delmege (2010), co-chairman of Singer Sri Lanka (2017). Named the country’s wealthiest individual by 2013. Held the Board of Investment chair, the Transport Ministry secretaryship, a National List MP seat, and briefly the Investment Promotion ministry (2022).
Early life and background
Dhammika Perera was born in Payagala, a coastal town in Sri Lanka's Kalutara district, in December 1967. His father kept a grocery and his mother taught school. He attended Taxila Central College in Horana, a provincial school well outside Colombo's elite circuit, and there was no family business or political patronage waiting for him.
He enrolled in a non-destructive testing programme at the University of Moratuwa, the country's leading engineering school, then left it at nineteen to go into business. In a society where that qualification promised a secure professional career, walking away was a real wager. The timing made it harder still: the late 1980s brought a partially liberalised economy but also a deepening civil war, scarce capital and political instability that would weigh on investment for decades.
Building Vallibel One and the Hayleys group
Perera's first businesses were modest and cash-based. He began with hawking, moved into slot machines, opened his first casino in 1993 and added electronics in 1995. Gaming remains part of the group: he owns three of Colombo's five casinos, Bally's, Bellagio and The Ritz Club.
The larger story is what he did with that cash. Over roughly two decades he bought control of established listed companies and folded them into a growing group. Pan Asia Bank came in 2000. In 2003 he added LB Finance, Royal Ceramics and The Fortress resort, followed by Vallibel Finance in 2005. In 2008 he took control of Hayleys PLC, a conglomerate dating to 1878, then the Delmege Group in 2010, and in 2017 he became co-chairman of Singer Sri Lanka.
The result is a network of about 23 listed companies, gathered largely under the Vallibel One holding company and Hayleys. It spans finance, building materials such as Royal Ceramics and Lanka Tiles, hospitality through Amaya Leisure and The Kingsbury, and export manufacturing through Haycarb, Hayleys Fabric and Dipped Products. By 2013 he was named Sri Lanka's wealthiest individual, and Forbes Asia later put his fortune at around LKR 72.6 billion, roughly US$550 million.
