All Blogs
Sri Lanka Marxists oppose expropriation law in historic move
Nov 04, 2011 (LBO) – In a bizarre development, Sri Lanka’s Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, a Marxist opposition party has opposed a state plan to expropriate assets of private citizens, contrary to the original teachings of a German theoretician. The state has been accused by the main opposition of using the laws to wrest land belonging […]
Sri Lanka rejects all bids at Treasures auction
Nov 03, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state debt office rejected all bids at a Treasuries auction Wednesday after rates rose for several weeks running. Outright rejections of bids have in the past coincided with tight liquidity coming from defence of a dollar peg. LBO’s economics columnist fuss-budget recently warned the market to expect entire […]
Sri Lanka stocks end down 0.9-pct
Nov 03, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankan stocks slumped Thursday, a day after being pushed up almost three percent on news a regulator who had been cracking down on fraud had been removed, brokers said. The main All Share Price Index fell 0.85 percent (55.09 points) to 6,397.19, while the more liquid Milanka index fell […]
Merger Watch
Nov 03, 2011 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings Lanka said it is maintaining Merchant Credit of Sri Lanka’s (MCSL) National Long-Term ‘BBB(lka)’ rating on ‘Rating Watch Evolving’ (RWE) pending a merger. MCSL is a registered finance company (RFC) that accounted for 1.9 percent of total RFC assets at end-2010. It has a network of 11 branches. […]
Share Issue
Nov 03, 2011 (LBO) – A 70 million US dollar initial public offer of shares by Sri Lanka’s People’s Leasing Company was oversubscribed on the opening day Thursday itself and would close in the afternoon, a stock exchange filing said. People’s Leasing Co., the island’s largest leasing company, offered 390 million shares at 18 rupees […]
Wake Up
Nov 03, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s banking regulator has urged bank directors to be more diligent and use their skills to ensure the health of their own institutions and that of the financial system. Central bank governor Nivard Cabraal said that although the economy was growing fast with the end of the island’s 30-year […]
US ready to sell F-35 fighter to India: Pentagon
WASHINGTON, November 2, 2011 (AFP) – The United States would be prepared to sell India the new F-35 fighter jet, the Pentagon said Wednesday, after New Delhi rejected a US offer of older aircraft in a major competition this year. “While the report shows that tremendous progress has been made in military-to-military relations over the […]
Sri Lanka trying to swap Chinese infrastructure loans to equity: minister
Nov 03, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka wants to swap debt to equity at some of its Chinese funded projects to reduce repayment pressure in the future, minister for international monetary co-operation Sarath Amunugama said. Sri Lanka has taken Chinese loans to build port, road and airport infrastructure. Many of the loans are from Exim […]
Sri Lanka govt defends nationalisation bid
November 3, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Thursday defended a controversial move to nationalise “under-performing” private companies and rejected allegations that the move was politically motivated. Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said the proposed legislation was aimed at improving productivity in companies that received tax and other concessions but were plagued with mismanagement and inefficiency. […]
Sri Lanka state entities making losses; ruined by political meddling: report
Nov 03, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state entities have been badly hit by the appointment of unqualified persons to top positions and while annual accounts were not available for some, a media report said. The COPE report is also critical on the performance of all university administrations except the Moratuwa University, the newspaper said. […]