Broga Hill Investments sells its stake in John Keells Holdings

Jan 09, 2020 (LBO) – Special-purpose investment vehicle of Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Broga Hill Investments Limited has sold its stake in John Keells Holdings for 22.6 billion rupees. 141,854,717 shares equivalent to 10.8 percent of John Keells Holdings has sold to a foreign buyer today morning at 10.03 am. Broga Hill […]

ICRA Lanka reaffirms long-term & short-term ratings of First Capital Holdings

Jan 09, 2020 (LBO) – ICRA Lanka Limited, subsidiary of ICRA Limited, a group company of Moody’s Investors Service, has reaffirmed the issuer rating of [SL]A- with stable outlook for First Capital Holdings (FCH). ICRA Lanka has also reaffirmed the [SL]A2+ rating for the LKR 1,500Mn commercial paper programme of FCH. ICRA Lanka has also […]

Sri Lanka unemployment up to 5.1-pct in Q3 2019

Jan 08, 2020 (LBO) – T h e n u m b e r o f unemployed persons is estimated as 437,797 or 5.1 percent during the third quarter 2019, latest data show. Overall unemployment rate reported for female is 8.5 percent and 3.3 percent for male, the Sri Lanka Labour Force Survey (LFS) says. […]

LankaPropertyWeb sets up new Property Centre

Jan 08, 2020 (LBO) – Following over a decade of successful operation of helping people find, sell and rent property in Sri Lanka, LankaPropertyWeb.com which has become the most popular place for properties along with House.lk started a new chapter in its journey by establishing a ‘Property Centre (PC)’ in Colombo. In a prime location […]

CB Chief urges Sri Lanka banks to rethink its credit disbursement policies

Jan 06, 2020 (LBO) – Central Bank Governor Professor W D Lakshman urged Sri Lanka’s banking sector to rethink its credit disbursement policies, as the traditional ‘risk averse’ mindset has deprived emerging entrepreneurs and new ventures of much needed initial capital. Announcing the road map of the Central Bank for this year, Lakshman said credit […]

‘Manufacturing in 2020: Connecting machines to networks and companies to end-consumers’

Antony Bourne – President- IFS Industries While change is buffeting the industrial manufacturing industry from a number of directions, the most disruptive changes will be those which manufacturers can and should make for themselves. Many of these manufacturers are already taking advantage of technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) and as we head into […]

Business as usual isn’t the future of Ecommerce

Ecommerce is an ever-expanding world and there are many contradictory articles online regarding the future of Ecommerce. Whilst many discuss the proliferation of Ecommerce, there are a few articles predicting its death, in 2018 Harvard Business Review for example said” no industry is failing faster than retail”. The rise of global consumers with escalating purchasing […]

Sri Lanka tea exports up in Nov 2019

Jan 02, 2020 (LBO) – Sri Lanka tea exports for November 2019 totalled 21.9 M/kgs, showing a marginal gain of 0.6 M/kgs vis-à-vis 21.3 M/kgs of November 2018, a new report showed. Packeted tea has shown a growth YOY, whilst bulk tea has remained static,  Forbes and Walker Tea Brokers said in their monthly report. […]

New inclusions & exclusions of MBSL MIDCAP Index 2020 announced

Jan 02, 2020 (LBO) – New inclusions and exclusions of the MBSL MIDCAP Index 2020 have been announced. Accordingly, HNB Assurance, Sanasa Development Bank, Union Assurance, Commercial Bank, Dunamis Capital, Expolanka Holdings, Odel, Singer (Sri Lanka), Access Engineering and Ril Property have been excluded from the index. Seylan Bank, Pan Asia Banking Corp, First Capital […]

IRD issues circular to banks about new Withholding Tax structure

Jan 01, 2020 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Inland Revenue Department has issued a new circular to banks and financial institutions detailing the new Withholding Tax structure which will be effective from today to 31 March 2020. According to the circular, for the period from today to 31 March, aggregate interest income from all the accounts […]

Inland Revenue Dept. issues the list of VAT registration deactivated persons

Jan 01, 2020 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Inland Revenue Department has published the complete list of persons & businesses whose taxable supply has never exceeded 75 million rupees for any taxable period ended prior to 31 December 2019. Such inactivated persons are not permitted to collect VAT on the supplies made on or after today […]

CSE indices comparison for 2019: ASPI up 1.3-pct, S&P SL20 down 6.3-pct

Dec 31, 2019 (LBO) – Colombo Stock Exchange ended the year 2019 on Tuesday with a positive note, rounding up the gain of All Share Price Index (ASPI) by 1.27 percent to 6,129 as compared to the beginning of the year. The ASPI is the broad market index of the CSE and is designed to […]

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