Category: Industry
Lower Costs
Mar 10, 2010 (LBO) – Seylan Bank group has slashed its wage bill 30.7 percent to 2.5 billion rupees and is pushing to recover some its 29 percent bad loans as it is re-structured, senior officials in its state-backed management said. “We cut some unnecessary costs, stopped overtime, cut fuel allowances and increased staff retirement […]
Trade Flows
Mar 10, 2010 (LBO) – Cargo volumes at a Colombo port private container terminal in which John Keells Holdings has a big stake hit a monthly high in February as trade flows rebounded from global recession last year. South Asia Gateway Terminals handled 164,243 TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent container Units) in February 2010, its highest volumes […]
Airside
Mar 10, 2010 (LBO) – DHL Express, a global logistics company, said it has opened an ‘airside gateway’ facility at Sri Lanka’s sole international airport north of the capital Colombo that will help speed up air cargo shipments. Romesh David, president of JKH’s transportation group, said the two companies had invested over 250 million rupees […]
Sri Lanka Amana Takaful starts general insurance in Maldives
March 09, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Amana Takaful Insurance said its Maldivian subsidiary Amana Takaful (Maldives) has got regulatory approval to do general insurance business in the archipelago. The company said in a stock exchange filing that Amana Takaful (Maldives) is a subsidiary of Amana Global which is a fully owned subsidiary of Amana […]
Support Rating
Mar 09, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Seylan Bank in which state ownership increased to 28 percent following a 1.1 billion rupee capital injection has retained its ‘BBB+(lka)’ with a ‘stable’ outlook, Fitch Ratings said. The bank was able to reverse the deposit run, and reported a net deposit inflow of over 5 billion rupees […]
Sri Lanka to start underwater sled rentals to tourists
Mar 08, 2010 (LBO) – An under water scooter rental firm is starting up in a tourist area north of Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo, to feed an upturn in the industry following the end of a 30-year war, the island’s investment promotion agency said. Mountcastle Marine recreational sports complex will be in Arachchikattuwa in Sri […]
Firm Pegs
Mar 08, 2010 (LBO) – Foreign exchange trading profits in Sri Lankan banks plummeted in the December 2009 quarter as a firmer currency peg with the US dollar reduced volatility emerging data showed. At state-run Bank of Ceylon group, the country’s largest commercial bank by assets, forex profits had fallen 96 percent to just 90 […]
Weak Finances
Mar 08, 2010 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings Lanka said it removed People’s Merchant Bank’s National Long-term rating from Rating Watch Negative and downgraded the rating to ‘BB+(lka)’ from ‘BBB-(lka)’. The rating agency said in a statement it also assigned PMB a Negative Outlook. “The rating actions reflect PMB’s weakened financial profile in terms of its […]
Cash Management
Mar 08, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s investment promotion agency said it has approved an investment by a unit of Lankaclear, the national clearing house, to provide cash management services to banks in rural north-central Anuradhapura. The Board of Investment said in a statement Lankaclear Cash Management, a joint venture by Lankaclear and Transnational Group, […]
Tax Opinion
Mar 08, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s taxes on motor vehicles are ‘prohibitive’ and are discouraging imports and government revenues, the finance ministry has said in a report, echoing the view of the motor vehicle trade. The finance ministry in a report issued under country’s fiscal responsibility law in February said excise taxes on motor […]
Asset Probe
Mar 07, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has ordered a probe on the purchase of a Ceylinco group firm by the chairman of Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka, a state-run bank, in the course of a court case relating to a failed financial firm, a media report said. Supreme Court Justice Shirani Tilakawardene […]
Tax Brake
Mar 07, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has to cut its high rate of tax on banks to allow the sector to build capital as the economy is poised to grow after a war ended last year, a top banker has said. Taxation has in the past and continues to be in the present a […]