Category: Economy and Markets
Appropriation Bill for 2019 presented in parliament
Feb 05, 2019 (LBO) – The Appropriation Bill for the year 2019 was presented in parliament by Minister Gayantha Karunathilaka, Tuesday. The Cabinet in early January approved the Appropriation Bill for 2019 with an annual expenditure of Rs 4,470 billion with the Ministry of Defence secured the highest allocation of 393 billion rupees. The Ministry of Education […]
CINV and GUAR considering options to wind up The Sri Lanka Fund
Feb 05, 2019 (LBO) – Ceylon Guardian Investment Trust PLC (GUAR) and Ceylon Investment PLC (CINV) has decided to consider options of winding up The Sri Lanka Fund, an open-ended fund incorporated in the Cayman Islands, denominated in US dollars. The fund was relaunched in August 2010 under the management of Guardian Fund Management Limited (GFM) […]
‘s shareholding in JKH approaching 10%, stake valued at close to Rs20bn
February 5, 2019 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s richest man, Harry Jayawardena, has increased his shareholding in Colombo Stock Exchange bellwether John Keells Holdings (JKH) to near 10%. The total value of his shareholding is now worth close to Rs20bn.As of December 31, 2018, Jayawardena’s Melstacorp PLC owned 8.4% of JKH. After the quarter ended, the […]
From Toronto to Toddy, a Jaffna Entrepreneur’s Journey
By Jekhan Aruliah When it comes to investment in the North there is far more talk than there is action. A rare example of action is Suganthan Shanmuganathan. Having fled the Sri Lankan Civil War 25 years ago as a teenage schoolboy, Suganthan came back to Jaffna from Canada in 2014 with his wife and […]
Fitch announce re calibration of Sri Lankan National rating scale
Feb 05, 2019 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings said today it will re-calibrate the Sri Lankan National Rating scale to reflect changes in the relative creditworthiness among Sri Lankan issuers following the downgrade of the country’s sovereign rating to ‘B’ from ‘B+’ on 3 December 2018. The full statement follows: Fitch Ratings-Hong Kong/Singapore-04 February 2019: Fitch […]
Google+ requests consumers to save photos & videos before shutdown
Feb 01, 2019 (LBO) – American multinational technology company Google is requesting its consumers to download and save the content shared in their personal Google+ profiles as the company has decided to shut down the service for consumers by April 2019. The company said the decision was taken due to low usage and challenges involved […]
Sri Lanka’s John Keells Holdings profits up 7-pct in 3Q
Jan 31, 2019 (LBO) – Profits attributable to equity holders of the diversified John Keells Holdings group rose 7 percent to 4.8 billion rupees in the December 2018 quarter with revenues increasing 17 percent to 36.5 billion, its interim accounts showed.The Group profit before tax at 5.63 billion rupees in the third quarter is a […]
SLASSCOM hosts first-ever RPA Hackathon and Conference
Jan 31, 2019 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka Association of Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM) will host the first-ever Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Conference and Hackathon Awards on 13th February 2019 at the Galle Face Hotel. Organized by the SLASSCOM Business Process Management (BPM) Forum, this event has already seen many companies submitting entries for […]
Colombo Port to get pilot boats for more efficient service
Jan 31, 2019 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) will sign an agreement with Colombo Dockyard PLC to build two pilot boats for Colombo Port enabling it to handle a greater volume of activities with more efficiency. A pilot boat is a type of boat used to transport maritime pilots between land and the […]
”’; withdraws ratings
Jan 30, 2019 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings has affirmed Sri Lanka Telecom’s Long-Term Foreign and Local-Currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) at ‘B’ with a stable outlook and the agency has simultaneously withdrawn the ratings for commercial reasons. The ratings were withdrawn with the following reason For Commercial Purposes Key Rating Drivers Ratings Constrained by Sovereign: Prior to […]
Sri Lanka computer literacy at 27.5-pct: Digital literacy growing
Jan 30, 2019 (LBO) – Overall computer literacy reported in 1st half of 2018 for Sri Lanka is 27.5 percent, a new survey shows. This is an decrease of 0.8 percentage points from 2017 (1st half) to 2018 (1st half). When the digital literacy is considered two out of every five (aged 5 – 69) has […]
Sampath Bank says ‘incident’ reported in media already corrected
Jan 29, 2019 (LBO) – Sampath Bank says they have already taken appropriate measures to correct what they called an ‘incident’ occurred several months ago, to ensure no recurrence. Referring to an article appeared on a website this morning that is being shared on social media about a financial irregularity, the bank said in a stock […]