All Blogs
Pole Position
Aug 11, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s brand new automobile market is dominated by India’s Maruti and Toyota is leading the re-conditioned or imported used car segment, an analysis by J B Securities, a stock brokering firm, shows. Maruti/Suzuki sold 1,373 cars in July 2011, and on average sold more than 1,100 units each month […]
Combank
Aug 12, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Commercial Bank of Ceylon’s net profits in the June 2011 quarter rose 63.8 percent to 1.97 billion rupees, amid strong credit growth and containment of interest expenses, interim accounts show. The group reported earnings of 5. 17 rupees per share for the quarter. For the six months it […]
Health Expansion
Aug 12, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Hemas group is expanding its healthcare business with land bought in Battaramulla to build a new hospital near the island’s capital, group chief executive Husein Esufally said. “An expansion plan to add two more hospitals to the chain is well underway and we have been successful in securing […]
Tablet Wars
SAN FRANCISCO, August 12, 2011 (AFP) – US technology giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) on Thursday cut the price of its freshly-launched TouchPad tablet computers in a bid to gain traction in a market dominated by Apple’s iPad. TouchPads with 16 gigabytes of memory were offered on the HP website for $400 and models with 32 gigabytes […]
‘s elephant census begins despite boycott
MINNERIYA, August 12, 2011 (AFP) – Thousands of workers, soldiers and volunteers fanned out across Sri Lanka on Friday to begin the country’s first national elephant survey despite a boycott by some wildlife groups. Hundreds of conservationists decided not to take part because of fears prompted by comments from a minister that the survey will […]
‘s Religare expands into Africa
Aug 11, 2011 (LBO) – India’s Religare Capital Market Limited (RCML) said a recent purchase of South Africa’s Noah Financial Innovation will be a base for further expansion in to the region. RCML chief executive Martin Newson says the South African acquisition is part of its emerging markets investment banking operations, “both in its own […]
Sri Lanka Softlogic buys insurer
Aug 12, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Softlogic Holdings group today brought a 73.5 percent stake in Asian Alliance Insurance, a listed insurer for 3,308 million rupees, at 120 rupees per share. Softlogic Holdings said in an earlier filing that it wanted buy 53. 16 percent of Asian Alliance held by Asia Capital PLC and […]
Sri Lanka sells US$166mn floating rate bonds
Aug 11, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka sold 166 million US dollars of bonds based on 6-month London Interbank Offered rate extending tenors up to 5-years mainly targeting resident investors, the government’s debt office said. Called ‘development bonds’ the floating rate debt is sold mostly to domestic banks and investors allowed to have foreign exchange […]
Sri Lanka tourist arrivals up 32-pct in July
Aug 11, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tourist arrivals rose 32 percent to 63,339 in July 2011 with visitors in the first seven months rising 36 percent to 465,324 data from the tourist promotions office showed. Pakistani arrivals surged 130 percent to 2,040 and visitors from the Maldives rose 38 percent to 3,336. Western European […]
Lawlessness
Aug 11, 2011 (LBO) – Friday Forum, a Sri Lankan citizens group fighting to re-establish rule of law and liberal democracy, has raised fresh concerns about lawlessness in the island’s north after an elderly Tamil journalist was brutally assaulted. A 30-year war in the island’s north and east ended two year ago. Local elections were […]