President Mahinda Rajapaksa has intervened to stop Mobitel's acquisition of Hutch and instructed the senior management of Mobitel not to proceed with the deal, Asian Mirror reliably learns. 

The President has stopped the transaction on the grounds that the Mobitel had offered to buy the company at an "unreasonable price". 

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Mobitel had offered to buy 'Hutch' for USD 132 million, Asian Mirror learns. Meanwhile, Dialog Axiata, had offered to buy 'Hutch' for USD 78 million. 

President Rajapaksa, reportedly, had asked members of the senior management of Mobitel as to why they offered to buy Hutch for USD 132 million when Dialog had offered a much lesser price. 

When the members of the Mobitel senior management could not come up with an acceptable answer for the President's query, the latter had ordered to stop the deal with immediate effect. 

Previously, In a letter to the Colombo Stock Exchange, Sri Lanka Telecom PLC, the holding company of Mobitel disclosed  that negotiations were in progress to acquire Hutch.