- Weak
demand for office space in Colombo
The demand for office
space in Colombo is "weak and there is a
surplus of office space available in the city,''
one of the country's major property developers
has reported to his shareholders.CT Land and Development Chairman Albert.
A. Page, has said in the just published report of
his company that over 9,000 square feet of space
in the Majestic City's office level is vacant. It
was not possible for the company to consider a
revision of office rentals despite rising
operating costs although shop rentals have been
revised. (full story)
- Asian Hotels
turning the corner?
Asian Hotels
Corporation Ltd., which controls the lion's share
of 5-star hotel rooms in Colombo, has reported a
profitable operation after meeting interest
commitments in the first quarter of the current
financial year ending June 30, 1998, shareholders
have been told.Asian
Hotels are the owners of the Hotel Lanka Oberoi
and the controlling shareholder of Hotel Services
(Ceylon) Ltd., the owners of the Hotel Ceylon
Intercontinental, in which it has a 51.63% stake.
Additionally the company also owns 42.45% of
Trans Asia Hotels Ltd. (full story)
- Serendib
closes 5-year deal with CTC Eagle
Serendib Land Ltd.,
owners of the Slave Island premises occupied by
CTC Eagle Insurance Co. Ltd has finalised a new
agreement with their tenant under which the
company's rental income for five years, beginning
April 1997, has been fixed, shareholders have
been told.Serendib
Chairman, Asker. S. Moosajee, has also reported
that the period during which concessionary rates
and taxes payable to the Colombo Municipal
Council and the company's tax free period had
also ended. (full story)
- Asia Capital
turn round, but retained losses still a drag
With the management of
Asia Capital Ltd. now in the hands of its
founders, a major shift in policy and direction
had taken place with an aggressive program of
investment and diversification launched, the
company's new chairman, Mr. Nigel Austin has told
shareholders.Asia had
turned round in the year ended March 31, 1998,
posting a profit of Rs. 220 million against a
loss of Rs. 110.9 million a year earlier.
However, the company was carrying a retained loss
of Rs. 297.2 million in its books as at March 31,
1998. During the first quarter of the current
financial year the group had earned a net profit
of Rs. 26.7 million, down from Rs. 63.9 million a
year earlier. (full story)
- IMF and the
Asian crisis III
The IMF's prescription for all
developing countries in trouble is a strong
mixture of liberalization, deregulation and
privatization aimed at integrating them with the
world economy described as globalization.
Liberalization, deregulation and privatization
are designed to remove all obstacles such as
tariffs and restrictions on foreign trade and
investment, provide equal or national treatment
foreign capital, eliminate State intervention to
build, support and protect indigenous enterprise
and to create a free market based on private
enterprise. Such measures to integrate with the
world economy are advocated mainly to allow
foreign trading and investing firms unrestricted
entry to developing countries to assist in their
development with funds, technology, management
and marketing skills. The IMF, however, has
studiously avoided warning, the developing
countries that globalization is double-edged,
that it provides opportunities but also brings
risks, that it can create wealth but it can also
destroy it.(full
text)
- Small first
quarter loss at Lighthouse
- HNB
opens gold investment accounts
|
- Strong first
quarter as Ceylon Brewery consolidates with Lion
The Ceylon Brewery
Ltd., which has consolidated the results of its
subsidiary, The Lion Brewery Ceylon Ltd., into
its accounts in the current financial year has
performed extraordinarily well in the first
quarter with a pre-tax profit of over Rs. 100
million in the three months ending June 30, 1998.Carsons Management Services (Pvt.) Ltd.
who manage the Brewery have said that Lion had
begun beer sales from June 1. Although sales have
commenced, Lion has not yet taken over its new
plant from the turnkey suppliers as final
acceptance tests are pending. These are expected
to be completed this month and once this is done,
Lion's commercial operations will be in
"full swing'', Carsons Management said. (full story)
- Investment
company holdings restructured
Carsons
treble first quarter profits
Carson Cumberbatch and
Co. Ltd., among the richest Sri Lanka companies,
has reported an extraordinarily strong first
quarter during the current financial year with
after tax profits over three times those earned a
year earlier.Despite its
massive assets including Malaysian plantations, a
controlling stake in the beer industry here, real
estate, hotels, investment companies with
valuable share portfolios and other interests,
Carsons have an ordinary share capital of only
Rs. 10.2 million. The company recently issued Rs.
300 million worth of preference shares. (full story)
- Galadari hard
hit by exchange losses
Galadari Hotels (Lanka)
Ltd. has seen a sizable operational loss in the
first half of this year severely aggravated by
continuing interest expenses, depreciation and an
exchange loss that was over double the previous
year's.In an interim
statement to shareholders incorporating
provisional unaudited results, the company has
reported a trading loss of Rs. 29.5 million, down
from a profit of Rs. 35.4 million during the
comparative period the previous year. The hotel
was becoming operationally profitable before it
was hit by last year's terrorist bomb. (full story)
- A
web of economic troubles and political blunders
The Deputy Minister of
Finance preens himself on the alleged success of
his government's economic policy. He should
remember that extreme macro-economic instability
can arise almost overnight as we see in the world
today. The government might imagine that it is in
control of the economy and that it is heading in
the right direction. But they can lose the grip
almost in a flash. This works partly through the
expectations that people form about how things
will turn out. Their expectations are by no means
optimistic. Consider the collapse in the stock
market which has now gone below 500 points for
the All Share Price Index. It was only during the
time of the JVP conflict that the All Share Price
Index fell below 500. The foreign portfolio
investor has largely written off our stock
market. (full
text)
- Cheaper Thai
clinker enables Tokyo to cut cement price
The effects of the
South East Asian economic crisis and the
resulting currency devaluation has not been
totally negative as far as Sri Lanka is concerned
with imports from the region becoming cheaper.One beneficiary has been Tokyo Cement
Co, Ltd., which together with its recently
commissioned subsidiary, Fuji Cement, expects to
soon become the country's leading cement
producer. Tokyo imports all its clinker
requirements from Thailand and the baht
devaluation had made such imports cheaper. This
has enabled the company to make a ten-rupee price
cut per 50-kg. bag of cement from May but still
improve its margins from a year earlier, a recent
John Keells research report said. (full story)
|
.