Buying Time

Mar. 30 (LBO) – Sri Lanka's Commercial Bank of Ceylon Thursday put off its annual and extraordinary general meetings till next week, as shareholder attendance fell short of the required quorum. The lack of a quorum is due to a court order which restricted the voting powers of some of Commercial Bank's key shareholders including the DFCC Bank and business tycoon Harry Jayawardena controlled Stassens group and its related companies.

Under the bank's articles of association, the quorum or minimum number of shareholders required to attend the meeting, is fixed at 50 percent.

But Thursday's meeting generated only 39 percent.

The bank's Chairman Mahendra Amarasuriya told shareholders present, that today's meeting has been adjourned till April 6 at 3.30 pm, to be held at the same venue.

In such an event, the necessary quorum will be reduced to 33.33 percent, which market analysts consider is attainable.

-Mel Gunasekera: mel@vanguardlk.com