Category: Industry
Sri Lanka on arrival visa extended till March: report
Dec 01, 2011 (LBO) – An on-arrival visa facility for many countries will continue till March 2012 and will not be discontinued by the end of December 2011, due to teething problems in an electronic approval system, a media report said. Citizens of South Asian nations will be able to get the visa for 10 […]
‘s to get US$300mn Sheraton hotel
Dec 01, 2011 (LBO) – India’s ITC Ltd, franchisee for US-based Sheraton leisure group will invest 300 million US dollars in Sri Lanka’s on a beachfront in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo, minister Keheliya Rambukwelle said. But the firm has now been offered alternative land, reports said. The mixed development project will be built on five […]
Bank Stake
Dec 01, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s DFCC Bank bought a 9. 9 percent stake in Nations Trust Bank for 1. 3 billion rupees Thursday, a source close to the deal said. DFCC Bank bought 22,865,356 shares at 57. 80 rupees each in three crossings or off-market private deals. The deals helped push up turnover […]
Future Flows
Dec 01, 2011 (LBO) – The International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group, has given a seven-year, 65 million US dollars financing facility to Sri Lanka’s Commercial Bank to expand its lending to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). IFC said it believes that the future flow structure employed in the transaction with […]
Rock Row
Nov 30, 2011 (LBO) – Chinese contractors building a new port in southern Sri Lanka have finished blasting and clearing a rock blocking the entrance channel whose discovery after construction began had sent the project cost up sharply. The additional blasting and dredging required to clear the rock at the Hambantota port, which was officially […]
Capital Cover
Nov 29, 2011 (LBO) – Several Sri Lankan lenders will visit Oman and Qatar in December as part of plans to encourage banks to borrow abroad, Deputy Governor Dharma Dheerasinghe said. To encourage banks in the initial stages the Central Bank will also give some comfort through a swap contract to mitigate foreign exchange risk. […]
Card Play
Nov 29, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Nations Trust Bank, which has the franchise for American Express, has said its credit card business is recovering after being hit by interest rate restrictions imposed by the banking regulator. Renuka Fernando, NTB’s deputy chief executive, said the bank has been able to increase credit card business volumes […]
Sri Lanka power plant shut down after coal fire
Nov 29, 2011 (LBO) – A 300 MegaWatt power plant in Sri Lanka was shut down following a fire at a coal crushing plant but is expected to be re-connected to the grid by noon, an official said. A power ministry spokesman said there was no disruption to supply as it happened in the early […]
Regional Role
Nov 29, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankan celco Dialog Axiata said its Group Chief Marketing Officer Nushad Perera is to take up a regional role at the headquarters of the Axiata Group Berhad in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The group currently has controlling interests in subsidiary operations in Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Cambodia as […]
Digital Economy
Nov 28, 2011 (LBO) – Alcatel-Lucent has said it sees big opportunities in post-war Sri Lanka especially in extending its services from the island’s telecom sector to railways and public safety. Alcatel-Lucent’s Managing Director for Sri Lanka & the Maldives Upendra Samaratunge said the company’s association with Sri Lanka started over three decades ago when […]
Tele Tracks
Nov 28, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankan celco Dialog Axiata is supplying asset tracking services using satellites for rice millers in the main north-central cultivation region that allows monitoring of vehicle movements and their cargoes. Suresh Sidhu, group chief officer for enterprise and global business of Dialog Axiata, said they had supplied rice millers in […]
Sri Lanka interests Flemish SMEs; trade with Belgium expands
Nov 27, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has seen a surge in exports to Belgium in 2011 and small and the is investor interest in the island among small and medium enterprises in Flanders, a statement by the island’s embassy in Brussels said. Belgium had accounted for 11.28 million dollars. Claire Tillekaerts, acting chief executive […]