Category:
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 […]
Sri Lanka Finlays unit reveals gains from commodities crash
Mar 22, 2010 (LBO) – Buying tea for stock during the commodities crash in the last quarter of 2008 helped boost profits at Finlays Colombo group last year, the Sri Lankan company has revealed. The firm, part of the Swire group of the UK, said its tea packing business made higher profits in the first […]
Sri Lanka private TV station stoned ahead of vote: police
March 22, 2010 (AFP) – Dozens of unidentified men pelted stones at the headquarters of a private television station in Sri Lanka’s capital Monday, causing damage to the building, police said. The latest attack came as Sri Lankan and foreign media rights groups accused the government of President Mahinda Rajapakse of cracking down on dissent, […]
Sri Lanka expects more support from multilateral lenders: Treasury chief
HANOI, Mar 22, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is looking for more flexibility and backing from multilateral lenders as the country emerges from a war and a global crisis and is planning sustainable growth for the future, a top official said. IMF only lends money to the central bank to boost its reserves and budgetary […]
Vietnam lauds role of policy advice, international support, in recovery
Hanoi, Mar 22, 2010 (LBO) – International support and policy advice on macro-economic management has helped Vietnam recover from a slowdown in 2009 and the country intended to use global links to cut poverty, officials said. Vietnam’s economy slumped in the fist part of 2009 but recovered later and the country was expected to record […]
IMF Vietnam forum debates post-crisis way forward for developing Asia
HANOI, Mar 22, 2010 (LBO) – Government officials, international financial institutions and policy researchers are discussing developing Asia’s response to the global crisis and the way ahead for lower poverty and growth at a forum in Hanoi Monday. Sri Lanka’s finance secretary P B Jayasundera, Nepal’s minister of finance, Surendra Pandey and advisor to Bangladesh’s […]
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 […]
India faces more rate hikes to tame inflation: analysts
MUMBAI, March 21, 2010 (AFP) – India’s central bank looks set to tighten monetary policy further after raising interest rates for the first time in nearly two years as it bids to check spiralling inflation, economists say. In a move that surprised experts, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) hiked short-term rates from record lows […]
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 […]
Sri Lanka sells US$93mn in dollar bonds
Mar 19, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has raised 92 million US dollars by selling two and three year dollar denominated bonds at rates slightly lower than the previous year, the government’s debt office said. In March severe cashflow strains usually emerge in government finances as state employees are paid two salaries ahead of a […]
Sri Lankan shares close 0.27-pct down on retail selling
Mar 19, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lankan shares closed down Friday as investors took profits from selected midcap stocks, while Sunshine Holdings, John Keells Hotels and First Capital were heavily traded, brokers said. Commercial Bank of Ceylon closed at 191. 50. The All Share Price Index closed at 3,744. 92, down 10.27 points, while the […]
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, […]