With Sri Lanka adopting open market economic policies focused on export led growth in 1977, Aitken Spence forayed further into new business segments : Container and allied services in 1979; Garments and apparels in 1979; International courier service agency with TNT in 1981; and Elevators in 1989 as agent of OTIS. With insurance sector being deregulated in the 1980s, the Group played a pivotal role in the resurgence of private sector insurance as a proponent of the National Insurance Corporation and Union Assurance Ltd, stakes in which Aitken Spence subsequently divested. Aitken Spence reentered Plantations sector, when the sector was reprivatized in 1992, through its stake in Udapussellawa Plantation PLC that was later divested.
