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Sri Lankan court frees Tiger officials on bail
September 11, 2009 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan court on Friday released on bail two members of the Tamil Tiger rebel group who gave themselves up a month before the military leadership of their movement was wiped out, officials said.Court officials said former Tiger spokesman Velayudam Dayanidi, better known as Daya Master, and a top […]
UN urges Sri Lanka to free its staff, respect human rights
UNITED NATIONS, September 11, 2009 (AFP) – The United Nations on Thursday called on Sri Lanka to respect the human rights of two UN employees who have been held without charge since June on suspicion of collaborating with Tamil separatists. One of them, Charles Raveendran Navaratnam, was working for the UN refugee agency UNHCR in […]
Sri Lanka Central Bank cuts policy interest rates by 50bp
Sept 11, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank said it had decided to reduce policy interest rates by 50 basis points each from Friday with the repurchase rate to be 8.00 percent and reverse repurchase rate 10.50 percent. It said in a statement its Monetary Board decided to cut rates as inflation was low […]
Sri Lanka gets US$75mn World Bank credit for villages
Sept 11, 2009 (LBO) – The World Bank has approved a 75 million US dollar credit for village infrastructure development in Sri Lanka to expand its ‘Gemi Diriya’ project, the multilateral lender said.It has mobilized resources by promoting savings and village credit, and by linking communities to financial institutions and the private sector. Gemi Diriya […]
Sri Lanka first sovereign bond trades above par: official
Sept 10, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s first sovereign bond which has a coupon above 8.25 percent has started to trade above par in recovering from steep discounts seen before an internal war ended, an official said. Sri Lanka is now evaluating bids from seven international investment banks to float another 500 million US dollar […]
Sri Lanka to issue US$50mn dollar bonds to local market
Sep 10, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is selling 3-year bonds for 50 million US dollars in the local market to qualified investors who can hold dollar assets, the government’s debt office said.The bonds will pay interest based on the 6-month London interbank rate (LIBOR).A 35 million US dollars in bonds are maturing this month. […]
Sri Lanka investors take profit after hotel share rally
Sept 10, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan stocks ended marginally up Thursday as investors took profits on a hotel share rally but trading volumes remained above a billion rupees for the third straight day, brokers said.“Profit taking was seen in stocks like Sampath Bank and the hotel sector.” HDFC Bank closed at 170.50 rupees, up […]
Sri Lanka August tourist arrivals up
Sept 10, 2009 (LBO) – Tourist arrivals into Sri Lanka in August 2009 rose 34.3 percent to 41,207 from a year ago, led by visitors from key markets like the UK, Germany, India, the Tourism Authority said. It was the third straight monthly rise in visitors since May, when a 30-year war ended, compared with […]
Sri Lanka luxury resort developers to raise equity
Sept 10, 2009 (LBO) – Developers of a luxury island resort managed by the Six Senses chain in Sri Lanka who have set up an investment fund will seek to raise further cash through a private share offering, an official said. Neil De Silva, chairman of Dutch Bay Resorts which is to build the resort […]
Sri Lanka tea prices rise on supply uncertainty
Sept 10, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan tea prices rose sharply at this week™s auctions, driven by supply uncertainty, with labour unions preventing teas leaving hill country estates, possibly creating shortages at future sales, brokers said. Asia Siyaka Commodities said there was more general demand in the catalogues from estates with buyers paying up for […]
Tech Archaeology
Sept 10, 2009 (LBO) – At Sigiriya, in central Sri Lanka, a group of geophysicists are probing the ground around an ancient rock fortress with ground penetrating radar, looking for man-made structures which are 1,500 years old.The rock is surrounded by a landscaped patchwork of shallow ponds – a water garden – which is irrigated […]
Turnaround Strategy
Sept 10, 2009 (LBO) – A write-off of old equipment will help Sri Lanka’s Dialog Telekom, a unit of Malaysia’s Axiata, lower costs, support higher call volumes in a turnaround strategy after positing a record quarterly loss, an official said. A six billion rupee network equipment write-off drove up losses to a record 7.6 billion […]