Category: Industry
Reaching Out
Mar 15, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lankan finance companies should reach out to rural areas which historically have been short of credit, governor of the Central Bank, Nivard Cabraal, said. Rural savers are also known to make deposits at unregulated finance companies that offer high interest rates but risk making heavy losses if the firms […]
Extra Income
Mar 15, 2010 (LBO) – Payment of an extra 20 percent ‘bonus interest’ to Sri Lankan senior citizens on rupee deposits maintained at licensed commercial banks will start from Thursday, March 18, the Central Bank said. The government will pay the extra interest to citizens over 60 years of age subject to a limit of […]
Port Move
Mar 15, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Colombo port will get new cranes before the end of this year to replace aging equipment and improve cargo handling capacity, a senior official said. Container traffic in Colombo, which is a hub for south Asian cargo, has begun to recover after dipping last year because of global […]
Slick Market
Mar 14, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Chevron lubricants unit said sales fell in 2009 with a downturn in local and export demand, but is expecting a recovery this year with new demand expected from former war torn areas. The firm said industry volumes fell 7. 0 percent in which was the third consecutive year […]
Credit Expansion
Mar 14, 2010 (LBO) – Commercial Credit Ltd, a registered finance company based in Sri Lanka’s central hill town of Kandy opened an office in the capital Colombo, which the firm says is a step in a expansion drive. The company, founded 28 years ago, has network of five branches and 12 collection centres unveiled […]
Name Tag
WASHINGTON, March 13, 2010 (AFP) – The adult entertainment industry is going to have to wait a while longer to see whether it gets its . XXX domain name. The board of ICANN, the international regulatory body for Web addresses, on Friday delayed a decision until June on whether to create the . XXX domain. […]
Sri Lanka rice import barrier too high: consumer minister
Mar 13, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is expected to re-erect an import barrier soon to keep cheaper rice out of the reach of the island’s consumers, but the country’s 25 rupee a kilo duty is too high, consumer affairs minister Bandula Gunewardene said. “I personally think the duty of 25 rupees on a kilo […]
Sri Lanka budget airline says no longer making losses
Mar 12, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-owned budget airline, Mihin Lanka, whose losses have been subsidized by government, said it has begun making monthly profits after breaking even last August. However, the controversial airline, which stopped operating in 2008 after losing over three billion rupees and leaving bad loans at two state banks and […]
Sri Lankan Airlines to expand routes, frequencies
Mar 12, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lankan Airlines plans to add more destinations and increase frequencies on existing routes as it expands and the island’s tourist trade revives with the end of a war, senior officials said. “Now we’ve managed to reduce losses. There’s a gradual rise towards profitability. ” The island’s national carrier also […]
Sri Lanka Hotel Services shares traded heavily
Mar 12, 2010 (LBO) – Large parcels of Hotel Services (Ceylon), owners of Hotel Ceylon Continental, changed hands in early trade on the Colombo bourse Friday amid speculation its owner businessman Nahil Wijesuriya was selling out. The trades pushed turnover on the bourse to over two billion rupees by mid-morning, brokers said. The indices also […]
Sri Lanka Hayleys buys 51-pct stake in Hotel Ceylon Continental
Mar 12, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Hayleys group said it bought a 51 percent stake in Ceylon Continental Hotel Friday for 1. 8 billion rupees. Hayleys said in a stock exchange filing that under stock market rules it has to make a mandatory offer to other shareholders of Hotel Services. Updated The stake was […]
Gas Supply
Mar 12, 2010 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka Ports Authority is in talks with suppliers of liquid petroleum gas to introduce a third player in the local market once a storage terminal is built in a new port, an official said. SLPA chairman Priyath Wickrama said the LPG storage terminal would come up in the […]