Category: Industry
Margin Gains
Feb 10, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Finance, a regulated finance firm said net profits for the December 2011 quarter rose 72 percent to 472 million rupees as margins widened amid falling rates. For the nine months to December Central Finance reported profits of 1.19 billion rupees, up 69 percent giving earnings per share […]
Changing Control
Feb 10, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Distilleries Group has struck a deal to sell a controlling stake in the island’s pioneering unit trust management company, National Asset Management Ltd or NAMAL, a statement said. Distilleries subsidiary Milford Holdings is expected to earn 455 million rupees for the 70 percent stake in the mutual fund. […]
Fresh Start
Feb 10, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Union Bank which is going for an initial public offer selling 15 million shares at 25 rupees after its capital was boosted by several private investors including Malaysia’s Genting group, officials said. Officials say unaudited results for the full year indicate a profit of 148 million rupees. Next […]
Oilfield Vessel
Feb 10, 2011 (LBO) – Greatship India is considering giving orders for bigger and more sophisticated vessels to Sri Lankan ship builder Colombo Dockyard, its managing director Ravi Sheth said after taking delivery of a 26 million US dollar craft. Sheth said Greatship has so far placed orders for 11 vessels with Colombo Dockyard, the […]
Port Project
Feb 10, 2011 (LBO) – Infrastructure work on a new container port next to Sri Lanka’s existing Colombo harbour that will expand capacity has neared the halfway mark and is on schedule, officials said. Deputy ports minister Rohitha Abeygunawardene said the construction of the breakwater and dredging of the harbour basin will be completed by […]
AirAsia says no fuel surcharge before oil hits $100
KUALA LUMPUR, February 9, 2011 (AFP) – Southeast Asia’s largest budget carrier AirAsia said Wednesday it has no immediate plans to impose fuel surcharges despite sharply higher oil prices. AirAsia chief executive officer Tony Fernandes told AFP that the carrier will only consider imposing a ticket surcharge if the New York crude futures contract hits […]
Top Up
Feb 09, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s unit of UAE-based Etisalat said it has tied up with a payphone operator allowing prepaid customers to top up their balances or ‘re-load’ through call boxes. Etisalat is trying up with Tritel, which has a network of 1,600 call boxes around Sri Lanka. “We launched this with Tritel […]
Joint Stock
LONDON, February 9, 2011 (AFP) – The London and Toronto stock exchanges announced a landmark merger on Wednesday to create a one of the world’s biggest trading platforms that will dominate raw materials and energy. “London Stock Exchange Group plc and TMX Group Inc. today announced an agreement to combine Europe’s and Canada’s leading diversified […]
Appointment
Feb 09, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Seylan Bank has appointed Tilan Wijeyesekera an industry veteran with experience in financial services and consumer goods, to head its marketing and business development. Wijeyesekera has been at Lanka Milk Foods as general manager – marketing, head of marketing at Janashakthi Insurance, marketing business development manager at Elephant […]
Road Bill
Feb 09, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will need 55.6 billion rupees (500 million US dollars) to make emergency repairs and fully re-build roads damaged in record floods last month, an official said. The damaged roads were mostly in the Uva, Eastern, North Central and North Western provinces of the island. Pemasiri said road rebuilt […]
Box Moves
Feb 09, 2011 (LBO) – Container volumes at Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) terminals in Colombo port hit a new monthly record of 205,539, up 24 percent from a year ago, a statement said. Colombo port handled four million containers in 2010. The volumes exceeded the previous monthly high of 201,212 TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) […]
Sri Lanka tourism product needs facelift to justify price hikes
Feb 08, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka needs to improve the quality of its tourism product and infrastructure to further increase room rates after a post-war rise in rates made the island look expensive, an equities research report said. The country also needs to improve entertainment and shopping in order to break the seasonality of […]