Category: Industry
Asian Trading
MANILA, Sept 15, 2006 (AFP) – The Asian Development Bank said Friday it has launched a 10 billion-dollar Asian currency note programme that would serve as the first platform for bond issues in regional currencies. Under the scheme, Asian currency bonds are issued in their domestic markets under a single unified framework with a common […]
Hedging Option
Sept 14 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is looking at oil futures to hedge against increasing crude prices and control the island’s runway oil bill next year, officials said. Sri Lanka is hoping to bring about a more stable macro-economic framework in the next few years and one such move to do this is to take […]
Member ID
Sept 14 (LBO) – The Hayley™s group said Thursday that it had tied up with Bartronics India Limited to develop and market identification devices such as Barcodes and Smart Cards. The products like Radio Frequency Identification Devices and other data capturing and security solutions, will be marketed through Hayley™s logistics subsidiary Logiventures Ltd. These solutions […]
Settling Debts
Sept 14 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s private port operator South Asia Gateway Terminals said Thursday that it has raised 48 million dollars through a syndicated loan facility, to refinance old debt. As at end August, volumes handled at SAGT was up 36.5 percent over last year, to 853,883 TEU’s, with high growth in lower margin […]
Steady Growth
Sept 13 (LBO) – Sri Lanka and India are likely to clock in about three billion dollars in bilateral trade in the next year, despite some troubled investments, India™s finance minister Shri Chidambaram said Wednesday. The two countries saw trade grow from 650 million dollars six years ago when the Indo-Lanka free trade deal was […]
Hollywood vs. China
BEIJING, Sept 13, 2006 (AFP) – Six Hollywood studios said Wednesday they had filed suit against Chinese firms for allegedly selling illegal copies of their movies, in a case aimed at curbing the rampant piracy of Western films here. More than 90 percent of films sold in China on DVD are estimated to be pirate […]
Vehicle Rating
Sept 13 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s largest leasing company People’s Leasing got a stable A-(lka) long term rating from Fitch Ratings Lanka, led by strong growth in its vehicle lease portfolio. The company’s vehicle lease portfolio has tripled between 2003 and 2006, with commercial vehicles such as buses and lorries accounting for a bulk of […]
Time Please
September 12, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s banks has sought extra time from monetary authorities to report dormant accounts with only ten banks reporting details so far, an official said. “Ten licensed commercial banks have already submitted their reports,” Secretary General of the Sri Lanka Banks’ Association Upali de Silva said. Banks were earlier asked […]
Higher Plane
September 12, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Janashakthi Insurance Company Ltd said its profits grew 324 percent to 209.5 million during the financial year ended December 2005. The privately held insurer reported 32.6 percent sales growth of 3.86 billion rupees despite facing stiff competition for a slice of the country’s tiny insurance market. Income from […]
Different Package
Sept 11, 2006 (AFP) – Finance ministers and top officials from Commonwealth countries meeting Monday in Sri Lanka’s capital said they will seek ways to cancel billions of dollars in debt owed by poor nations.Don McKinnon, the head of the 53-member Commonwealth, said he hoped finance ministers will be able to focus attention on debt […]
Minting Money
September 11, 2006 (LBO) — Sri Lanka’s Central Bank is spearheading a campaign to push up foreign exchange remittance from countrymen residing overseas, in an attempt to raise cash for development work.Using networks of the two state banks Bank of Ceylon and People’s Bank monetary authorities Monday launched an awareness campaign throwing incentives ranging from […]
Burning Question
Sept 11, 2006 (LBO) – Oil will feature high on the agenda when Commonwealth finance ministers meet in Colombo, with delegates due to share ideas on how small countries like Sri Lanka can tide over soaring costs of crude. “Major issues being taken up will be high oil prices in addition to trade related issues […]