Category: Industry
SriLankan Airlines adds flights to India
Oct 19, 2010 (LBO) – SriLankan Airlines plans to improve connections to major Indian cities by adding several flights to Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore, a statement said. Also, large numbers of Indian travellers transit Colombo to destinations as far as North America, Europe and the Far East, as well as nearer regions such as the […]
Hospital Strategy
Oct 19, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka™s Asiri Hospital has bought a 10 percent stake in Asiri Surgical Hospital for 500 million rupees increasing its stake to 40 percent, managing director, Ashok Pathirage said. State-run Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation sold the stock for 9.50 rupees a share Tuesday, he said. SLIC had a 22 percent […]
Bitumen Packer
Oct 18, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-run Ceylon Petroleum which has a 95 percent market share in bitumen, is looking for an investor to set up and run a plant to pack tar into barrels petroleum minister Susil Premajayantha said. “We are looking for an investor who can open a plant to pack barrels,” […]
Sri Lanka picks up Asian nominations in World Travel Awards
Oct 18, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s has been nominated under few regional categories for Asia region in the World Travel Awards, but lost to countries like India, Singapore, China, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia which swept the boards. Sri Lanka is recovering from 30 years of war and the country has been named the top […]
Sri Lanka land delays seen holding up hotel projects
Oct 18, 2010 (LBO) – Delays in getting land are holding up new hotel projects in Sri Lanka which needs more rooms for an anticipated boom in arrivals with the end of a war, an official said. Hiran Cooray, chairman of the Jetwing hotel and travel group, said there was much pressure for new investments […]
Credit Trend
Oct 18, 2010 (LBO) – Credit to Sri Lanka’s businesses from commercial banks rose 12.6 percent in August 2010 to 1,226.5 billion rupees from a year earlier while credit to government fell, official data shows. Sri Lanka’s petroleum firms for example are taxed till they run losses and prices are politically controlled. Growth in loans […]
Viable Proposition
Oct 18, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Hatton National Bank aims to increase lending under its micro-finance portfolio as it has been found to be good business although misunderstood by many, chief executive Rajendra Theagarajah said. “Micro-finance is part of the ‘DNA’ of HNB, even though it accounts for only two percent of our balance […]
Hotel Sale
Oct 17, 2010 (LBO) – Depositors of Sri Lanka’s failed Golden Key Credit Card Company, an unregulated finance firm, may get some cash when a part of the money from a hotel connected to the firm is sold, a media report said. President Mahinda Rajapaksa is due to meet two Golden Key depositor associations on […]
Software Piracy
Oct 15, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka still has work to do to better protect intellectual property rights whose violations are of concern to the United States, a visiting US government official said. Michael Delaney, assistant US trade representative for central and south Asia, said IP rights protection and software piracy were some of the […]
Sea Links
Oct 15, 2010 (LBO) – India and Sri Lanka have agreed on and initialled a draft agreement to resume ferry services between the two neighbours that was disrupted by the island’s ethnic war, a statement said. “The two sides agreed on the text of the Memorandum of Understanding for passenger transportation by sea between the […]
Health Sourcing
Oct 14, 2010 (LBO) – Cambio Heathcare Systems, a Sweden based health sector firm has moved its outsourcing unit to larger premises in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo, the country’s investment promotion agency said. The firm had started operations in Colombo in 2005 with 40 employees. By the beginning of this year its cadre of engineers […]
Finance Losses
Oct 14, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s The Finance Company, which is converting some deposits into shares, has managed to reduce losses compared to last year but interest costs are still higher than income, a stock exchange filing showed. The firm, part of the troubled Ceylinco group although now under separate management, made a loss […]