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  • "Soft alcohol best answer to kasippu''
    Ceylon Brewery calls for consistent govt. policy
    The Ceylon Brewery Ltd., the country's pioneer beer brewer, fears that any regulation of the soft alcohol industry through the government's proposed National Alcohol Policy would deal the company a grievous blow.

    It also argues that a lack of consistency in government policy will be hurtful to generation of both local and foreign investment.
    "The proposed policy on alcohol, whilst being well intentioned - but potentially unsuccessful - attempts to deal with a social issue (and) contradicts previous government policy on soft liquor.    (full story)

  • Plantations and transportation help catch up lag
    Hayleys maintain earnings despite exchange rate challenges
    The continuing buoyancy in the plantations and useful contributions from the transportation sector largely covering freight has enabled Hayleys Ltd., one of the country's most diversified companies, to improve profitability in the first quarter of the current financial year.

    An improved performance has been achieved by the Hayleys Group despite reverses suffered by subsidiary Haycarb and associate Dipped Products as a result of currency depreciation of competitors located in South East Asia. Both Haycarb's activated carbon and Dipped Products' rubber gloves face margin pressure as a result of heavy devaluations helping competitors in S.E. Asia. (full story)

  • IMF and the Asian Crisis II
    The IMF and the developed countries, particularly the USA, have attempted to show the world that the currency crisis in Asia was caused by unsound macro-economic policies, State intervention and regulation, croynism and the lack of a free market. It is strange that they had to wait for a major crisis as the current one to make these charges. They had not made them when the Asian countries were booming: on the contrary, they had praised their performance and endorsed their policies. The Asian crisis was actually caused by the excessive foreign short-term borrowings, reckless domestic lendings by banks and unhealthy assets bubble in Asian countries which led to a loss of confidence in them in international financial markets. Such practices would have caused an implosion in any country whether it had or not sound macro-economic policies, free market economy and transparent policies. (full text)
  • Central Finance boss on weathering the storm
    Stay with good liquid shares in teeth of sharp downturn
    When a stock market takes the kind of kidney punch that Colombo has just suffered, what does an investor do?

    Mr. Chandra Wijenaike, the chairman of the Central Finance Group, has expressed some thoughts on the subject in the just released annual report of Central Securities Ltd., the Central Finance associate owning a portfolio of quoted shares. (full story)

  • Profits satisfactory despite smugglers
    CTC achieves 32% export growth at mid-year
    The Ceylon Tobacco Co. Ltd. has reported a robust 32% export growth and 5% growth in domestic sales for the six months ended June 30, 1998, shareholders have been told in an interim financial statement.

    "Were it not for the increasing presence of illegally manufactured cigarettes and smuggled international brands in Sri Lanka, domestic sales would have been greater,'' the company said.

    The statement said that the heavy restructuring charges incurred at "right sizing'' the company together with substantial investment made to ensure that CTC will be totally millenium compliant before the year 2000 had resulted in a decline of the profit before tax which was down 11% to Rs. 314 million during the period under review. (full story)
  • Acme returns to profitability, strives for previous heights
    Acme Printing and Packaging Ltd. has returned to profitability in the year ended March 31, 1998, and the company's chairman, Mr. R.L. Juriansz, has assured shareholders that it would strive to achieve its high profit levels of the past within a short period.

    "You would be happy to note that, not only has the company now regained all of its lost business, but it has also substantially widened its customer base by developing new products,'' Juriansz has said.     (full story)
  • Some lost ground will be caught up
    First quarter profit dips sharply at Haycarb
    Haycarb Ltd., Sri Lanka's pioneer activated carbon manufacturer, has seen a sharp downturn in profitability during the first quarter of the current financial year with the profit attributable to shareholders at Rs. 23.5, million down from Rs. 49.3 million a year earlier.

    The company which earned a profit of Rs. 157 million for the financial year ended March 31, 1998, is however confident of improving on the first quarter results by the year-end. But it remains unclear whether last year's results can be matched.     (full story)
  • Trade simplification before electronic data interchange
    Former Minister of Trade Lalith Athulathmudali, the brilliant administrator that he was, realised that the problems faced by the private sector should be brought before the bureaucracy in an open forum for discussion. He realised that there must be inter-action between the bureaucracy and the private businessmen for their mutual understanding.

    So he set up the Exporters Forum, a quarterly meeting of top government officials of all government departments connected in some way or other with trade. He borrowed the institution from South Korea where it was very successful in promoting understanding between business and the bureaucracy. But the present government has allowed this institution to lapse into oblivion, perhaps because it was an innovation of the previous government. (full text)

  • Alpha raises stake in Sri Lanka duty free shop
    Alpha Airports Group Plc increased its investment in Sri Lanka duty free operator Orient Lanka Ltd., by 37 per cent, the Public Enterprise Reform Commission (PERC) said on Friday.

    Alpha Airports, the UK-based multinational which paid 740 million rupees for the 37 per cent, first invested in Orient Lanka in May 1996 by buying a 60 per cent stake for one billion rupees when the enterprise was privatised by selling control to a strategic investor.     (full story)
  • Tri Star wins pat on back from visiting Marks & Spencer boss
    Peter Salsbury, Managing Director of Marks and Spencer, the internationally known British clothing and food retailer whose St. Michael's brand enjoys a global reputation, was in Sri Lanka last week visiting Tri Star factories here. These factories are a major supplier for Marks and Spencer.

    Salsbury was accompanied by Chris Lewis, Divisional Director of the company for the Far East and senior directors of S.R. Gent of the U.K. with whom Tri Star has close connections. (full story)

  • Lion now operational, producing good beer
    The Lion Brewery Ceylon Ltd., the Ceylon Brewery subsidiary which is now operational, is producing what the company's chairman, Mr. Tilak de Zoysa called "beer of very good quality.''

    Reporting to shareholders in the company's second annual report, de Zoysa described the year ended March 31, 1998, as a "notable year of success'' with the plant commissioned although a behind schedule and with cost overruns. Brewing had commenced on March 30 and bottling soon thereafter. Stocks were released to the market on June 1. (full story)

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