Category: Industry
Sri Lanka buys out Emirates for US$53mn
July 07, 2010 (LBO) – The Sri Lankan government has bought a stake owned by Emirates in SriLankan Airlines for 53 million dollars taking full control of its national carrier, finance ministry secretary P B Jayasundera said. Emirates managed the airline for 10 years from 1998. “Payment has been made and shares are held by […]
Credit Line
July 7, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Lanka Orix Leasing Company will expand credit to war torn northern and eastern areas of the country armed with a credit line from the French government, officials said. PROPARCO, the private sector funding arm of the French foreign aid agency gave a 10 million euro credit line to […]
Cargo Flow
July 07, 2010 (LBO) – Container volume growth at a Colombo port private terminal run by an associate firm of John Keells Holdings slowed down sharply in June after surging in previous months, latest data shows. South Asia Gateway Terminals, a big contributor to JKH profits, handled 158,652 TEUs or twenty-foot equivalent container units (TEUs) […]
Shell Talks
July 06, 2010 (LBO) – A high powered Sri Lanka government committee tasked with buying back a controlling stake in a gas firm privatized to Shell, a petroleum firm, will meet Friday to decide on its future moves, a top official said. Shell Gas Lanka is the top liquefied petroleum gas (cooking gas) distributor in […]
Fuel Failure
July 06, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-owned oil refiner, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), suffered a loss of almost 13 billion rupees in the first six months of this year, a senior official said. Petroleum ministry secretary Titus Jayewardene said the refiner, which has a 50,000 barrels a day refinery at Sapugaskanda, north of Colombo, […]
Fuel Losses
July 06, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-owned oil refiner, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), continued to suffer losses in the first half of 2010 an official said. The CPC is also owed billions by state institutions which buy fuel from it do not repay, indirectly financing the budget deficit through bank credit. Petroleum ministry secretary […]
Sri Lanka mulls geo-thermal energy potential
July 06, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka intends to tap its geo-thermal energy potential and is reviewing its power generation plan to give more emphasis to renewable energy sources, the island’s power minister said. Minister of Power and Energy Patali Champika Ranawaka said government geologists have identified sites with potential to generate geo-thermal energy. “Geo-thermal […]
Sri Lanka, India in talks on power exchange
July 06, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka and India are having talks on exchanging power to help meet demand during peak times, with the island expecting an energy surplus and no more power cuts, an official said. “It’s like a flower opening. When all these infrastructure projects come into operation there will be a quantitative […]
Sri Lanka state bank buys into insurance firm
July 06, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state owned Bank of Ceylon (BOC) and its subsidiary Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka (MBSL) has bought 4.1 percent of Janashakthi Insurance for 225 million rupees. In a privately negotiated off-the-floor deal between BOC and its investment banking unit MBCL, 15 million shares of Janashakthi Insurance changed hands […]
Better Connection
July 06, 2010 (LBO) – Dialog Telekom has inked an Inter-Carrier-Interconnection (ICI) deal with Hong Kong based HKT group which enable users to maintain a network similar to a local area network (LAN) with international branch offices. The network upgrade will allow users to interconnect voice, data and video applications with overseas branch network similar […]
‘s trade benefits over human rights
BRUSSELS, July 5, 2010 (AFP) – The European Union decided Monday to withdraw trade concessions in August granted to Sri Lanka after the government failed to make a written commitment to improve its human rights record. Government forces have been accused of a host of rights violations including the indiscriminate killing of thousands of Tamil […]
Sri Lanka gets daily Emirates flights to Singapore
July 05, 2010 (LBO) – The Dubai-based Emirates airline has started daily services between Colombo and Singapore from July 01 with the addition of two more frequencies to and from the city state, a statement said. Singapore remains one of the most popular destinations out of Colombo for shopping, leisure and business travel, said Devika […]