Category: Industry
Holy Banking
Nov 20, 2006 (LBO) – The Ceylinco group tied up Monday with Malaysia’s Centre for Islamic Finance to set up a faculty for Islamic financial studies in Sri Lanka. The Ceylinco Sussex Business School will roll out a Certified Islamic Finance Program locally, to meet a growing demand for trained professionals in Islamic finance, expected […]
Long Tenure
Nov 20 (LBO) – Seylan Merchant Bank said Monday it would float ten year listed debentures to raise long term funds to match its lending portfolio. The 95 million rupee debenture issue would be the first long-term listed debt instrument in the local market, opening for subscription on November 27, the company said in a […]
Road Builders
Nov 20, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has concluded talks with the Asian Development Bank for an additional 90 million dollars to expand the country’s Southern expressway, Treasury Secretary PB Jayasundera said Monday. The government wants to boost the government’s infrastructure investment to five percent of Gross Domestic Product over the next few years, Jayasundera […]
Southern Airport
WEERAWILA, Sri Lanka, Nov 19, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president Sunday marked his first year in office by launching work on a new international airport to handle the giant Airbus A380 airliner and pledging a major new port.President Mahinda Rajapakse laid the foundation stone for a 125-million-dollar, 4,000-metre (13,200-feet) upgrade to a small airport […]
Safety Net
November 17, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka said Thursday they were exploring the possibility of setting up a 40 million dollar government guaranteed fund with World Bank assistance, to encourage private investment in the war torn north and east, officials said. Mooted under the Multilateral Investment Guaranty Agency or MIGA arm of the World Bank, […]
Last Stage
Nov 16, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Co-operative Wholesale Establishment (CWE) is to sell a 226 perch land which National Savings Bank has already paid in 500 million rupees in advance, to settle loans worth 5.1 billion rupees to the banks. Last year, commerce minister Jeyeraj Fernandopulle said the ministry was hoping to sell 226 […]
Grid Failure
Nov 15 (LBO) – Sri Lanka was blacked out for nearly two hours Wednesday as the national grid shut down during the even peak demand hour.Power failed in most parts of the island except areas like Jaffna which is isolated from the national grid and Trincomalee in the east, residents said.Power failed shortly after 7.30 […]
Disk Doctor
Nov 15, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Government and the ICT Agency will launch an emergency response unit next month to counter threats and vulnerabilities affecting computer systems and networks, officials said Wednesday. The response unit CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) will be a source of expertise to assist member organizations in responding to and […]
History Lessons
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 13, 2006 (AFP) – Google added historic map overlays to its free interactive online globe of the world on Monday to provide views of how places have changed with time.Google Earth engineers digitized one of the largest US map collections and integrated the information into its program, which lets users virtually navigate […]
Steady Pace
November 14, 2006 (LBO) – Hatton National Bank Ltd, Sri Lanka’s second biggest privately owned lender by assets, Tuesday said group net profits rose to 580.60 million rupees for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, up from 35 percent reported in the same period 2005. Hatton National Bank, which is active in leasing, corporate finance, […]
Banking Online
Nov 14, 2006 (LBO) – Bank of Ceylon (BoC), Sri Lanka’s biggest lender in terms of assets, plans to finish linking up all its branches within the next few days, allowing customers to carry out their banking needs by using the Internet, officials said Tuesday. “We have 302 local branches and 248 of those branches […]
Sliding
November 14, 2006 (LBO) – High taxes have hit profits of DFCC on the September quarter but six months profits are still higher than the previous year.After tax profits of DFCC group after minority interest fell to 395 million rupees for the latest quarter down from 451 million for the same period last year. At […]