Industry – Page 770 – Lanka Business Online

Bank Buy

Mar 25, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lankan government controlled funds bought chunks of Hatton Nation Bank on the Colombo bourse Thursday increasing their stake in the private listed bank to 25 percent of its voting rights, brokers said. “Now the government owns 25 percent of HNB,” the spokesman from Capital Trust Securities said. Sri Lanka […]

Sri Lanka mulls aviation complex in former Tiger jungle airstrip

Mar 24, 2010 (LBO) – A makeshift airstrip built by Tamil Tiger separatists in the jungles of northern Sri Lanka is to be turned into an aviation complex under government post-war reconstruction plans, an official said. L H Indrasiri, director, geographical information systems of the Urban Development Authority, said the proposal was part of a […]

Finance Issue

Mar 24, 2010 (LBO) – An initial public offer of shares by Sri Lanka’s Vallibel Finance is seen as being priced to a discount to market given its immediate earnings record, Capital Alliance, the issue’s placement agent, said. Vallibel Finance seeks to raise 114.4 million rupees by selling 5.2 million shares at 22 rupees each. […]

WTO negotiators say scant progress made in trade talks

GENEVA, March 22, 2010 (AFP) – Scant progress has been made in talks for a global trade pact, top negotiators told World Trade Organisation member states Monday, dampening hopes of a deal in the Doha Round soon. The round of negotiations for a trade liberalisation deal are primarily aimed at removing obstacles to trade for […]

Workforce Skills

Mar 23, 2010 (LBO) – The United States has given 750 scholarships to youth in Sri Lanka’s former war zone in the north and east to help them find jobs, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) said. It said in a statement it recently awarded 500 scholarships in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to […]

Sri Lankan Aitken Spence hotel group buys beach resort

Mar 22, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings has acquired 100 percent of Ramada Resorts, a beach resort formerly known as Golden Sun Resorts, for 350 million rupees, a stock exchange filing said. The filing said the shareholders of Golden Sun Resort in Kalutara on the west coast had given the nod […]

Smart Banking

Mar 22, 2010 (LBO) – Banks can reduce credit risks by segmenting present and future customers into different credit risk pools using information technology, a senior official from International Business Machine (IBM) Corporation said. “We believe that there are three imperatives that are going to force financial institutions to think and act in fundamentally new […]

Investment Shift

Mar 21, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-sector retirement funds plan to make “more aggressive” investments in the share market and less in Treasury bills and bonds, Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal has been quoted as saying. The funds have also been giving negative real rates of return for most years as interest rates on […]

Debt Reduction

Mar 20, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Vallibel Finance will use cash raised from an initial public offering (IPO) to reduce financing costs and expand leasing and hire purchase businesses and its branch network, a senior official said. “We were planning to come to the market in another two to three years but we came […]

‘s first commercial wind energy plant to start

Mar 18, 2010 (LBO) – Senok Wind Power, Sri Lanka’s first commercial wind energy plant, will start operating this month in Puttalam in the island’s north western coast using a 10 MegaWatt plant, officials said. “This pioneering effort set from Senok has set the pace for attracting private sector investment for further development of wind […]

Sri Lanka kicks off second coal plant

Mar 19, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s president Mahinda Rajapaksa has launched the second stage of a coal power complex built with Chinese financing which will add another 600 MegaWatt, the president’s office said. China became top lender to commit funds to Sri Lanka is 2009 accounting for 1.2 billion US dollars. The first 300Mega […]

Helping Hand

Mar 19, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank has launched a credit refinance scheme to help small and medium enterprises which are in difficulty to recover, senior officials said. The 100 percent refinance scheme through banks will give loans at eight percent up to a maximum of 20million rupees to help existing firms recover, […]