Category:
Finance Rating
Dec 10, 2010 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings Lanka has confirmed Central Finance Company’s (CF) National Long-term rating at ‘A+(lka)’ with a stable outlook, a statement said. CF’s net interest margins improved to 13 percent in H111 largely due to an overall reduction in cost of funds. The agency has also assigned an ‘A(lka)’ rating to […]
Card Push
Dec 10, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Sampath Bank is pushing strongly into credit cards and is already on the third slot and is on track to top 100,000 cards early in 2011, with overall credit conditions also picking up, a top official said. At the moment Standard Chartered and HSBC are the two biggest […]
Sri Lanka tea prices, output at new highs
Dec 10, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea production is expected to hit a new high this year, exceeding 320 million kilos despite recent shortfalls owing to bad weather, while prices are also at record levels, brokers said. The average tea price at the Colombo auctions up to end-November of 369.38 rupees a kilo was […]
Sri Lanka tea exporters to pack in Iran
Dec 10, 2010 (LBO) – Iran, which restricts import of value-added teas, has offered to let Sri Lankan exporters pack and sell tea in the country under a preferential tariff quota scheme, the government said. Tea is Sri Lanka’s main export to Iran, the island’s sixth largest trading partner with total two-way trade between the […]
Inclusive Award
Dec 10, 2010 (LBO) – Dialog Axiata, Sri Lankan’s largest mobile firm, said a service which provides a virtual marketplace and delivers prices from key produce markets in the island has won a global award for mobile commerce. ‘Dialog Tradenet’ uses mobile text, voice and internet to deliver price information which is useful especially for […]
SpiceJet orders 15 Bombardier jetliners
MONTREAL, December 9, 2010 (AFP) – India’s SpiceJet has ordered 15 Bombardier Q400 NextGen regional aircraft valued at 446 million US dollars, the Canadian company announced Thursday. Gary Scott, president of Bombardier’s commercial aircraft division, said he expects India to buy up to 600 aircraft in the 20 to 149 seat category over the next […]
Bangladesh announces power sector deregulation
DHAKA, December 9, 2010 (AFP) – Bangladesh has announced a sweeping deregulation scheme for its power sector in a bid to ease the country’s crippling electricity shortages, a senior government official said. Foreign investors will now be allowed to set up power plants without winning a government contract and to sell on the national grid, […]
Sri Lanka Janashakthi Insurance rating upgraded
Dec 10, 2010 (LBO) – The claims paying ability of Sri Lanka’s Janashakthi Insurance has been upgraded to ‘A-‘ from ‘BBB+’ with a ‘stable’ outlook, on improving expense and claims ratios RAM Rating Lanka said. “Janashakthi’s rating continues to be supported by the Company’s strong competitive position in the general segment and its moderate underwriting […]
Sri Lanka fabric maker on rating watch negative after fraud allegation
Dec 10, 2010 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings said it placed Hayleys MGT Knitting Mills on ‘Rating Watch Negative’ after the Sri Lankan fabric manufacturer warned of losses when an inquiry revealed discrepancies in inventory and accounts receivables. Fitch has given Hayleys MGT Knitting Mills, a unit of the Hayleys conglomerate, a national long-term rating of […]
Sri Lanka slain customs officer given integrity award
Dec 10, 2010 (LBO) – A Sri Lankan customs officer who was gunned down after he exposed corruption in the customs service was posthumously awarded the National Integrity Award by the corruption watchdog Transparency International. “Corruption is deep rooted in human greed. The temptations and opportunities for corruption are greater today than ever before. Faced […]
Ukraine to attend Nobel ceremony after public pressure
KIEV, December 9, 2010 (AFP) – Ukraine will send a diplomat to the Nobel peace prize ceremony for jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiabo, a foreign ministry official said Thursday, after Kiev initially joined a boycott led by China. Ukraine will send the first secretary of the Ukrainian embassy in Norway to the ceremony on Friday, […]
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December 9, 2010 (AFP) – A six-year-old girl found at a house in Colombo is believed to have been sold by a hospital worker soon after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Sri Lankan child protection authorities said Thursday. Staff at the National Child Protection Authority went to the house after neighbours complained that the girl […]