Category:
Insurance Cover
May 15, 2007 (LBO) – HNB Assurance net profit for the first quarter ended March 31, 2007 rose seven percent to 12.9 million rupees, according to provisional results released to the Colombo Stock Exchange. Total revenue rose 24 percent to 269.7 million rupees while Gross Written Premium rose 24 percent to 324 million rupees and […]
New Player
May 15, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Board of Investment Tuesday said it had given approval for India’s largest publicly-listed telecom firm, Bharti Airtel, to be the island’s fifth mobile phone operator with an investment of 150 million dollars. Airtel is subsidiary of Bharti Enterprises which has interests in telecom services, equipment manufacture and export, […]
High Status
May 15, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) said Tuesday it has received BOI status from the Board of Investment that would enable it to import and buy locally project-related items free of customs duty. However, the company would not be exempt from income tax like other firms with BOI tax concessions. SLT Chief […]
‘s future today
WASHINGTON, May 14, 2007 (AFP) – The World Bank executive board will decide on Tuesday whether bank president Paul Wolfowitz can continue to lead the institution, the bank said in a statement on Monday. A special bank committee “recommends the Executive Directors to consider whether Mr.Wolfowitz will be able to provide the leadership needed to […]
Sri Lanka seeks to diversify investment into agro, metal industries
May 15, 2007 (LBO) –Sri Lanka is keen on attracting investments in sectors such as agro and metal industries, the island’s minister of investment promotion, Sarath Amunugama, said Tuesday. He was speaking at a function at the Board of Investment where some 600 million dollars worth of investment deals were signed with local and foreign […]
Good Quarter
May 14, 2007 (LBO) – PABC Bank net profit for the first quarter of 2007 shot up 91% to 45.4 million rupees from 23.7 million rupees in the same period the year before.Interest income in the January 1, 2007 to March 31, 2007 quarter rose to 387 million rupees from 271 million rupees last year, […]
Hot Chillies
May 14, 2007 (LBO) – International judges marking creative works for Sri Lanka’s Chillies advertising awards have been so strict on maintaining high standards that there were no winners in some categories. “Next year’s steering committee will without doubt deliver an event that is even better than this year’s. There are learnings from this year […]
More Victims
May 14, 2007 (LBO) – A listed Islamic insurer said it was suspending a proposed bonus issue, while a shipping firm said it had sought legal advice on how to proceed after a new company law made bonus issues redundant. The new law does not recognize bonus issues, and firms that want to issue more […]
Money printing, 2,200% inflation keep 80% of Zimbabweans in poverty
HARARE, May 13, 2007 (AFP) – Zimbabwean cashier Cosmas Gwizo does not look forward to pay day.For the 43-year-old earning 500,000 Zimbabwean dollars a month (about 2,000 dollars) the receipt of his salary cheque is a painful rather than joyous occasion. “Each time I receive my pay cheque I start scratching my head trying to […]
‘s inflation 3.0% in April, down from March
BEIJING, May 14, 2007 (AFP) – China’s consumer price inflation eased in April, rising 3.0 percent from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday. The index, a key indicator of consumer inflation in the world’s fourth-largest econnomy, was down from a year-on-year rise of 3.3 percent in March. Compared with March, consumer […]
Swiss central banker sees more rate hikes, to keep inflation below one percent
GENEVA, May 13, 2007 (AFP) – Further increases in Swiss interest rates are still on the cards, one of Switzerland’s central bankers said Sunday, while also praising the management of the euro currency.The eurozone is Switzerland’s biggest foreign trade market. Thomas Jordan, who joined the board of the Swiss National Bank on May 1, told […]
Kate Webb, legendary Asian correspondent, dies
SYDNEY, May 13, 2007 (AFP) – Through wars, disasters and coups, foreign correspondent Kate Webb chronicled the turbulent birth of modern Asia, becoming a media legend who had the eerie experience of reading her own obituary. Webb, who died of cancer on Sunday at 64, covered many of Asia’s seminal events of the last four […]