Category: Industry
Climbing Up
Feb. 16 (LBO) – State owned People’s Bank is hoping for a credit upgrade in the near future, a top official said. General Manager Asoka de Silva says a recent capital injection has strengthened its balance sheet, and profitability remains on track. “We are hoping that our rating would go up by at least one […]
Lead Runner
Feb. 15 (LBO) – Deutsche Bank’s Colombo branch has retained the top spot for custodian services among four key foreign banks operating in Sri Lanka, according to a global custodian review of emerging markets -LBO Newsdesk: LBOEmail@ The seventeenth global custodian survey, which covered 61 emerging markets, ranks agent banks based on client responses. Respondents […]
Healthy Eagle
Jan 15 (LBO) – Eagle Insurance notched up a 103 percent growth in net profits to Rs. 515 million for 2005, buoyed by rapid growth in its life and non-life businesses. Consolidated revenue growth for the insurance firm was up 15 percent from Rs. 3,728 million in 2004 to Rs. 4,277 million last year, the […]
Betting Big
Feb. 15 (LBO) – Smaller lubricant players are asking the Sri Lankan government to scrap a five-year license fee and instead opt for a 0.5 percent tax on each firm’s turnover, an industry official said Wednesday. Last month, Sri Lanka doubled licence fees for lubricant operators fixing it at Rs. 10 million (US$ 100,000) for […]
Just Cruising
Feb13 (LBO) – Luxury car importers DIMO Lanka says a hefty 214 percent tax on high engine capacity vehicle imports has not slowed down sales significantly.Since October 2004 the government has repeatedly increased import duties on motor vehicles, now totalling to 214 percent on a new car with an engine capacity above 1800 CC. Duties […]
Capital Gains
Feb 13 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s NDB Bank Monday said group net profit for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2005 was Rs. 462.8 million over Rs. 30.7 million the previous year. NDB Bank 4Q – ’05 4Q – ’04 Income
Green Fingers
Feb. 13 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Richard Pieris Group, owners of the ‘Arpico’ brand, are ploughing Rs. 150 million to generate energy off trees, a top official said. The Group’s core strengths lie in rubber and rubber products, tyres, plastics, retailing and plantations, which includes tea. Richard Pieris recently extended their reach into the real […]
Public Pension
Feb 10 (LBO) – The Social Services Ministry is targeting self-employed and others currently not covered by pensions, to subscribe to a little known state-run pension scheme, a top official said. Run by the Social Security Board, the pension scheme was set up as an Act of Parliament in 1996. The scheme has around 126,000 […]
Number Tangle
Feb 10 (LBO) – Lanka IOC, a unit of Indian Oil Corporation, may have to re-state their published accounts if the Sri Lankan government does not pay the full amount of the money claimed as subsidies, a top official said. The company is claiming sales of Rs.17.5 billion for the six months ended September 2005, […]
Bad manners bad for tourism business
Feb 09 (LBO)-Sri Lanka’s tourism branding came under heavy criticism on Thursday for the island’s lack of focus, inability to deliver on promise and for bad public practices. Destination branding was taken up in one of the technical session at Thursday’s Chartered Institute of Marketers (CIM) one day conference. Industry officials said among the many […]
Extended Protection
Feb 09 (LBO) The Sri Lanka signs MOU with Jordan to protect rights of migrant workers.Now our people that go to Jordan to work, will have the same rights and privileges as Jordanian workers, said the Minister of Labour Athauda Seneviratne, on Thursday. The three year MOU stipulates that work contracts for Sri Lankans be […]
’s Cleanup
Feb 08 (LBO) – The Social Service Ministry hopes to put-up Colombo’s estimated 1523 homeless in transitional housing by end 2006. Secretary to the Ministry V. Jegarasasingham said that poverty, the war and domestic abuse among other reasons has led over 1523 Sri Lankan men, women and children to take shelter on Colombo’s streets. Not […]