Author: lbostgadmin
Sri Lanka private TV station stoned ahead of vote: police
March 22, 2010 (AFP) – Dozens of unidentified men pelted stones at the headquarters of a private television station in Sri Lanka’s capital Monday, causing damage to the building, police said. The latest attack came as Sri Lankan and foreign media rights groups accused the government of President Mahinda Rajapakse of cracking down on dissent, […]
Sri Lanka Finlays unit reveals gains from commodities crash
Mar 22, 2010 (LBO) – Buying tea for stock during the commodities crash in the last quarter of 2008 helped boost profits at Finlays Colombo group last year, the Sri Lankan company has revealed. The firm, part of the Swire group of the UK, said its tea packing business made higher profits in the first […]
Sri Lankan Aitken Spence hotel group buys beach resort
Mar 22, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings has acquired 100 percent of Ramada Resorts, a beach resort formerly known as Golden Sun Resorts, for 350 million rupees, a stock exchange filing said. The filing said the shareholders of Golden Sun Resort in Kalutara on the west coast had given the nod […]
Smart Banking
Mar 22, 2010 (LBO) – Banks can reduce credit risks by segmenting present and future customers into different credit risk pools using information technology, a senior official from International Business Machine (IBM) Corporation said. “We believe that there are three imperatives that are going to force financial institutions to think and act in fundamentally new […]
Sri Lankan stocks becalmed
Mar 22, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lankan stocks closed barely changed Monday and trading was lower than that of recent days as retail investors bought into conglomerate John Keells Holdings (JKH) and selected midcap stocks, brokers said. The All Share Price Index closed at 3,743.00, 0.05 percent or 1.92 points down, while the Milanka index […]
India faces more rate hikes to tame inflation: analysts
MUMBAI, March 21, 2010 (AFP) – India’s central bank looks set to tighten monetary policy further after raising interest rates for the first time in nearly two years as it bids to check spiralling inflation, economists say. In a move that surprised experts, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) hiked short-term rates from record lows […]
Investment Shift
Mar 21, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-sector retirement funds plan to make “more aggressive” investments in the share market and less in Treasury bills and bonds, Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal has been quoted as saying. The funds have also been giving negative real rates of return for most years as interest rates on […]
Debt Reduction
Mar 20, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Vallibel Finance will use cash raised from an initial public offering (IPO) to reduce financing costs and expand leasing and hire purchase businesses and its branch network, a senior official said. “We were planning to come to the market in another two to three years but we came […]
‘s first commercial wind energy plant to start
Mar 18, 2010 (LBO) – Senok Wind Power, Sri Lanka’s first commercial wind energy plant, will start operating this month in Puttalam in the island’s north western coast using a 10 MegaWatt plant, officials said. “This pioneering effort set from Senok has set the pace for attracting private sector investment for further development of wind […]
Sri Lanka kicks off second coal plant
Mar 19, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s president Mahinda Rajapaksa has launched the second stage of a coal power complex built with Chinese financing which will add another 600 MegaWatt, the president’s office said. China became top lender to commit funds to Sri Lanka is 2009 accounting for 1.2 billion US dollars. The first 300Mega […]
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Mar 19, 2010 (LBO) – Sources from the Central Bank indicate that the Monetary Board, in its deliberation for the monetary policy action in the month ahead, has decided to keep the ˜policy rates untouched’ for another month. But, when the inflationary pressures are mounting and the aggregate demand is accelerating, the disregard of the […]
Sri Lanka poultry industry squeezed by state controls
Mar 19, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s poultry industry has been squeezed by taxes on imported maize which pushed feed costs up and price controls on processed chicken which worsened a downturn in the industry, a top agro firm has said. Ceylon Grain Elevators group, a unit of Singapore’s Prima, said an economic slump in […]