Category: Industry
Card Growth
May 31, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s banks have started to issue new credit cards ending a steady contraction seen during 2009, amid an overall growth in commercial bank loans to private businesses this year, official data show. In March 2010, bank credit to businesses rose 23 billion rupees, the strongest monthly growth since credit […]
Lease Growth
May 31, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Commercial Leasing Company will raise 700 million rupees through a senior unsecured debenture which has been rated ‘A-(lka)’ with a ‘stable’ outlook, Fitch Ratings Lanka said. The balance was working capital loans secured by vehicle mortgages (9 percent of advances) and debt factoring (15 percent). Fitch said loan […]
Logistics Link
May 31, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) is to function under the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC), the island’s oldest business chamber, as it launched a corporate membership drive, a statement said. The CILT has entered into an agreement with the CCC which enables the institution to function […]
Sri Lanka ex-Tiger combatants in apparel jobs: report
May 30, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Tri-Star Apparel Exporters group has recruited a batch of ex-Tamil Tiger combatants to work at its garment factories and has expressed willingness to employ more, a media report said. There had been fears of Sri Lanka losing competitiveness as well as loss of trade concessions from Europe later […]
Sri Lanka flights to start in June says Dubai budget carrier
May 30, 2010 (LBO) – Dubai-based budget carrier Flydubai will fly to Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo from June 23, offering one way tickets starting from 13,000 Sri Lanka rupees, media reports and the company website said. The airline is offering a Dubai-Colombo fare for 450 UAE dirhams (1 UAD Dirham = 31.1 Sri Lanka rupees). […]
Leaking Profits
SINGAPORE, May 30, 2010 (AFP) – Entrepreneur Binod Hariharan has big plans for his southern Indian firm, which develops astrology-based computer software to help users find a suitable spouse or plot their career paths. Similarly ambitious is Somporn Maneeratanakul, managing director of Thai Software Enterprises, and Nguyen Minh Duc, director of BKIS Security, a Vietnamese […]
Tech Craze
PARIS, May 28, 2010 (AFP) – Thousands of die-hard Apple fans mobbed shops in parts of Europe and Asia on Friday after the iPad, touted as a revolution in personal computing, began its global launch. Long queues of customers snaked outside Apple shops in Australia and Japan hours before the opening and similar huddled masses […]
Lease Growth
May 28, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s People’s Leasing Company, a unit of state-run People’s Bank is planning to raise 500 million rupees from a 4-year debenture which has been rated ‘A-(lka)’ Fitch Ratings Lanka said. “The proceeds from the issue will be utilised to fund the growth of PLC’s lease, hire purchase, and loan […]
Flat Quarter
May 28, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Deutsche Bank unit’s March 2010 quarter profits were flat at 235.2 million rupees on lower net interest income balanced by higher exchange income, published accounts showed. Deutsche Bank’s Sri Lanka unit’s gross assets grew 13 percent to 27 billion rupees. Deutsche Bank’s March quarter interest income fell 21 […]
Soft Skills
May 28, 2010 (LBO) – An information technology firm has set up a software development centre in Sri Lanka’s former war-torn eastern region with support from the United States, its embassy in Colombo said. Kingslake Engineering Systems had set up development centre in Akkaraipatti in the Ampara district with financial support from the US Agency […]
Sri Lanka welcomes end to US travel warning
May 27, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Thursday welcomed the lifting of a US warning against travel to the Indian Ocean island, anticipating a boost to tourism and investment a year after a bloody civil war ended. The number of holidaymakers arriving in the four months to April this year rose nearly 50 percent […]
Sri Lanka protectionists stage high profile protest against freer trade
May 25, 2010 (AFP) – Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in the capital Colombo Tuesday demanding Sri Lanka’s government abandon a proposed trade pact with neighbouring India. President Mahinda Rajapakse met the demonstrators at his tightly-guarded Temple Trees residence in Colombo and vowed he would not enter any pact that was harmful to […]