Category: Industry
Sri Lankan Airlines wins IndiGo maintenance deal
Feb 18, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan Airlines said its engineering arm has been awarded a major contract by IndiGo to carry out a series of important maintenance checks on the fast-growing Indian carrier’s aircraft fleet.The work will be done by Sri Lankan Engineering, the aircraft maintenance arm of Sri Lanka’s national airline, at it […]
Oil Negotiations
Feb 18, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is starting a round of talks with several banks to re-negotiate oil derivatives sold to a state-run petroleum firm which had gone against the utility, a government minister said. Sri Lanka’s central bank said the deals were ‘tainted’ and advised banks not to proceed with the deals. State-run […]
Slowing Trade
Feb 17, 2009 (LBO) – A container terminal that is one of the main money-spinners for Sri Lanka’s John Keells Holdings (JKH) has seen a fall in volumes owing to the global economic crisis, brokers and shipping analysts said.But LMS lost a tank farm and an effective monopoly in fuel supply in Colombo port last […]
Airwave War
Feb 16, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s mobile phone operators have declined to respond to accusations by newest market entrant, India’s Bharti Airtel, that they are resorting to interconnectivity sabotage, citing a gag order by the regulator. Company officials said the Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission (TRC) has asked celcos not to comment on recent accusations […]
Sri Lanka tourist arrivals fall 32-pct in January
Feb 16, 2009 (LBO) – Foreign visitors to Sri Lanka plunged 32.4 percent in January 2009 to 38,468 compared with the same month last year, the island’s tourist promotion office said, with a global economic crisis depressing leisure travel.Arrivals from Western Europe, a key generating market that is crucial to keep coastal resorts in jam, […]
No More
Feb 15, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Fitch Ratings has downgraded the rating of state-run mortgage lender State Mortgage and Investment Bank (SMIB) and withdrawn its rating, the firm said. The bank’s rating was downgraded to ‘BBB+(lka)’ from ‘A-(lka). The rating outlook is negative at the new level. Fitch Sri Lanka said SMIB owns 1.78 […]
Tight Ownership
Feb 14, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has tightened phone ownership rules by presidential order with mobile and wireless phones to be registered by an April 30 deadline, a media report said. The rules have to be implemented on or before April 30, the newspaper said. The Daily Mirror newspaper said Sri Lanka’s court of […]
Sri Lanka CEB pressured by poor rainfall
Feb 13, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-run power utility is under pressure from poor rainfall, but it is hoping to weather the dry season in the first quarter with higher reliance on thermal energy, an official said. The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), which has hydro storage of 1,200 GigaWatt hours (1,200 million units) started […]
Bangla Buy
Feb 13, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s NDB Bank said it has acquired a controlling interest of Capital Market Services Limited, a licensed merchant bank in Bangladesh. The acquisition was made after it fulfilled pre-investment conditions, National Development Bank said in a stock exchange filing. The announcement did not give the value of the investment […]
Space Debris
WASHINGTON, February 12, 2009 (AFP) – Two satellites collided in space hundreds of miles (kilometers) above Earth, destroying an Iridium commercial satellite in a crash that may result in disruption of service, the US company said Wednesday.“This satellite loss may result in very limited service disruption in the form of brief, occasional outages,” it said, […]
Medicine Men
LONDON, February 12, 2009 (AFP) – International aid agency Oxfam urged the World Bank and rich nations Thursday to stop “wasting” donations and possibly risking lives by backing unproven private healthcare programmes in poor countries.While Lebanon spends twice as much as Sri Lanka on healthcare, its infant and maternal mortality rates are 2.5 and three […]
Tele Cricket
February 12, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s second largest mobile phone operator on Thursday agreed a three-year deal worth nearly five million dollars to sponsor the island’s cricket team, Sri Lanka Cricket said. The Sri Lankan team, led by outgoing captain Mahela Jayawardene, leaves for Pakistan on Saturday for a two-Test series, which begins on […]