Author: lbostgadmin
Reaching Out
The World Bank is focusing on community development projects in the north and south to bring immediate benefits of peace at grassroots level, overcoming structural and man made problems.rn rnldblquote It is important for the benefits of peace to start flowing to the north fast, dblquote World Bank Country Director Peter Harrold told Lanka Business […]
Single Lane
Malaysian based Road Builder Holdings has become the sole contender to finance and manage the Colombo-Katunayake Expressway.Work on the US$ 130 mn highway has started with the Treasury allocating Rs.10 bn to Keangnam Construction Company.rn rnNearly 14 parties earlier expressed interest to finance and take over management of the highway, eventually running it as a […]
Green Parade
The government plans to go on an international roadshow to raise dollar funds for long-term infrastructure projects.rn rnThe lquote Sri Lanka Fund quote , the Board of Investments says will source its initial capital from North America and Europe as well as local insurance and pension funds.rn rnPremier Ranil Wickramasinghe is due to kick off […]
Wind Chimes
The new communications act floating in parliament at present, will decide Lanka Bells future business strategy, CEO Joey Mendoza says. For now the company is concentrating on being a valued telecom services provider, with Internet being one of the value-added services.rn rnMendoza says present plans did not include offering internet as a independent service, but […]
Green Debt
UBS Warburg and Deutsche Bank have been picked as joint managers to raise the balance dollar funds for the government.The investment bankers have been asked to raise US$ 100 mn through a floating rate note, with an option to borrow a further US$ 50 mn, Treasury sources said.rn rnTuesdays decision comes after the Treasury earlier […]
Overseas Call
Sri Lanka Telecom plans to issue Luxembourg traded global depository receipts as part of its public offering to foreign investors. Top SLT officials said the book building exercise for a 15 percent slice, is tipped to start after November 15, for the dual listing in Colombo and Luxembourg.rn rnDFCC Bank will manage the IPO, with […]
Green Money
Solomon Smith Barney, the investment-banking arm of the Citigroup has secured the mandate to raise US$ 150 mn for the government.The mandate is part of the governments fund raising exercise to raise US$ 350 mn in long-term funds for 2002.rn rnThe five-year syndicated loan will be backed by Nippon Export Investment Insurance Company of Japan, […]
Are You Spending More?
The Stock market valuation for most companies has doubled.Even the property market has picked up. rn rnIn effect your net worth could have almost doubled over the last year. rn rnNone of this money though has made it in to your bank account.rn rnBut are you spending more than you usually do? Economists call this […]
Intel Inside
Leading chipmaker Intel is bullish about the local market for its products. The company says the high social indicators and low penetration of computers leaves a lot of room for expansion.rn rnldblquote Earlier this year 1 billion PCs were sold in the world. If you look at the way they were used 75% was sold […]
Open Codes
Computer software giants world over, make money by selling proprietary products. However few software developers in emerging economies market proprietary software products.Local policy markers want software developers to market their own products creating more value.rn rnAn IT roadmap the government is working on also seeks to establish the country as a world class IT center. […]
House Hunting
State pension funds are eyeing long term housing bank debenture issues in an attempt to correct their assets and liability mismatch.rn rnState controlled Employees Provident and the Trust quote s fund managers are in discussions with three housing banks to purchase their debentures.rn rnState Mortgage and Investment Bank, Housing Development Finance Corporation and NDB Housing […]
JCT doing well
Container-traffic at the Colombo Port jumped by a mammoth twenty three percent in September, bucking an export growth trend.The Ports authority says the productivity at the Jaya Terminal at the Colombo port has also doubled with the introduction of a new incentive payment scheme.rn rnThe Jaya Container Terminal gantries are now shifting over seventy containers […]