Business

Ranjith Pandithage (Chairman and Managing Director of Diesel & Motor Engineering PLC) was recently bestowed with the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, one of the most prestigious recognition an individual can receive from the German Government at a ceremony held at the German Embassy in Colombo.

The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany was instituted in 1951 by Federal President Theodor Heuss. It is the only honour that may be awarded in all fields of endeavour and is the highest tribute the Federal Republic of Germany can pay to individuals for services to the nation. 

The awarding of the Order of Merit was done by His Excellency Jörn Rohde. The Ambassador went on to mention why and how Mr Pandithage was chosen for this honour. Pandithage spoke at the event where he traced his roots and his connections to Germany – as an engineering student and as a businessman.

DIMO has been representing the best of engineered German brands in Sri Lanka since 1939. DIMO represents more than 25 world class German brands including Blaupunkt, Bomag, Bosch, Claas, Demag, Detroit Diesel, Drager, Dremel, Fischer, Kaeser, KSB, Mercedes-Benz, Meditron, MTU, Osram, RZB, Schafer, SchwingStetter, Siemens, Still, thyssenkrupp, Vossloh-Schwabe and Zeiss.

Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau last week successfully concluded a two-day promotional mission to Saudi Arabia as part of its on-going efforts to develop new markets and increase the number of visitors and spend from the region to Sri Lanka.

Headed by Anjantha Ratnayake, assistant director, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, a delegation of 20 partners from Sri Lanka’s tourism and hospitality industries visited Dammam and Riyadh and held the roadshow at Holiday Inn Corniche and Holiday Inn Qasr on April 8 and 9, holding one to one meetings and informational seminars with leading travel agency representatives and outbound operators in each city.

Ratnayake said: “The mission has been a resounding success, with excellent attendance with the right partners in each of the cities visited, and our co-participating Sri Lankan industry partners reporting highly productive meetings that will result in increased business and travel to Sri Lanka from the region.”

In 2017, Sri Lanka received a total of 78,873 tourists from the Middle East region with Saudi Arabia topping the rank with the most number of tourist visitor arrival from the region with a total of 35,481 visitors. Currently, there are 28 direct flight services a week connecting Saudi Arabia to Sri Lanka, suggesting the potential to grow and develop the market further, especially as travellers from the country on average have one of the highest travel spends in the world. This will result in not only return dividends for Sri Lanka’s tourism and hospitality industries, but also for the retail industry.

Ratnayake added: “Sri Lanka has much to offer visitors from Saudi Arabia with our distinctive, adventure-packed, eco-friendly, family-focused experiences and offerings, as well as our rich nature, heritage and culture, year-round schedule of festivals and special events, numerous parks and eco-centers, and luxury resorts and wellness centres. Our mission has done much to put Sri Lanka on the map and in the hearts and minds of Saudi-based travel partners, and in combination with future promotions planned for the country and the region, I’m confident we will see many more visitors from Saudi Arabia making Sri Lanka their next holiday destination of choice in the coming months.”

In each of the cities visited, over a hundred key outbound travel professionals attended the Sri Lanka Tourism workshops and seminars to learn more about its touristic offerings and business opportunities. Both events were also attended and supported by Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Mohamed Azmi Thassim, along with Sri Lankan commercial secretary to Saudi Arabia, Gayan Rajapakse.

A total of 13 industry partners from Sri Lanka-based tourism and hospitality entities joined the roadshow including Aitken Spence Travels, Isra Holidays, Centuria Travels, I Am Sri Lanka, Araliya Green Hills Hotel, Explore The Wonders, and Asian Adventures Travel Management Company, among others.

The Saudi Arabia mission was successfully coordinated by Aviareps, the world’s leading destination marketing and promotion company.

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, on Wednesday announced an investment of $27 million in Sri Lanka’s Melwa Hotels and Resorts Private Limited. The financing will help Melwa Hotels, a subsidiary of Melwire Rolling Private Limited, develop three new hotels outside of Colombo, in Yala, Kosgoda, and Negombo. 

The hotels will be operated by Hilton Hotels. Melwa Hotels and Hilton had last year signed an agreement for the development of six Hilton-branded – three Hilton and three Doubletree by Hilton — properties in Sri Lanka. The entire project is estimated to cost over $100 million. 
The investment from IFC will improve tourism in Sri Lanka, create jobs, and generate more foreign exchange, the development institution said in a statement. 

“In addition to the funding, Melwa will also benefit from IFC’s expertise and advice as we diversify into tourism,” said Melwa managing director PP Muruganandhan. “The access to global experts and sectoral knowledge and best practices will be key to ensure that we build hotels that are profitable, sustainable and contribute to the local economies where they are located.” 

The project is in line with the Sri Lankan government’s goal to grow the tourism industry while minimizing potential negative environmental and social impacts, IFC noted in its statement. 

“Investments in tourism lead to job creation, generation of revenues and foreign exchange and strengthens local suppliers,” said Amena Arif, IFC Country Manager for Sri Lanka and Maldives. “IFC will also provide advice to Melwa Hotels on how to manage environmental and biodiversity matters to minimize their environmental footprint.” 

Sri Lanka is a priority country for IFC. Its committed portfolio in the country covers projects across a range of sectors, including infrastructure, tourism, renewable energy, finance, and healthcare.

Sri Lanka pay-TV service provider Dialog Television has announced it has reached the milestone of 1 million Sri Lankan homes. Dialog Television celebrates this achievement by rewarding all existing customers with access t o all channels including HD channels, at no additional charge until 18 April.

Additionally, package enrichment offers will be extended to customers, activating international channels in HD at no additional charge. In addition, the millionth customer was rewarded with a rental free Dialog Television subscription, and a 49-inch LED TV.

Dialog Television was launched in February 2007. The operator currently offers ‘pay-as-you-watch’ packages and satellite content for Sri Lanka customers. In addition, Dialog Television offers HD channels, TV On the GO service (Dialog TVGO), hybrid services (ViU Hub), and pay-per-view (7th Circuit) channels. The Dialog Television content is available in various languages, including Sinhala, Tamil, English, Hindi, Japanese and Korean.

Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison Group has announced plans to merge its Sri Lankan mobile unit Hutch Lanka with UAE-based Etisalat’s mobile business in the nation Etisalat Lanka.

The combined company will be majority owned and controlled by CK Hutchison, the company said in a statement.

The merger is aimed at better positioning the companies to serve their Sri Lankan customers, and is part of Etisalat’s ongoing portfolio optimization strategy.

The deal still requires competition and regulatory approvals in Sri Lanka as well as other closing conditions.

If approved, the merger would reduce the number of mobile operators in Sri Lanka from five to four and put the combined company in a better position to compete with incumbents Dialog Axiata and Mobitel.

According to GSMA Intelligence, Etisalat Lanka has a roughly 13% share of the local market, while Hutch Lanka has around 10%. This compares to 45% for market leader Dialog  Aixiata and 24% for Mobitel. The remaining 8% is controlled by Bharti Airtel Lanka.

People’s Bank’s gross income increased 31.4% to reach Rs 190.2 billion for the year ended December 31, 2017 whilst total operating income increased by by 15.2% to reach an industry high of Rs 78.8 billion.

Operating expenses increased by a controlled 4.9% to reach Rs 37.2 billion

The Bank’s impairment charges increased by 221% to Rs 4.4 billion. Relative to peers, the Bank’s and Group’s provisioning policy continues to be conservative with provision coverage at 97.5% and 92.7%, respectively at the end of 2017. Profit before tax increased by 17.4% to reach a group all time high of Rs 29.9 billion. On a Bank standalone basis, this was LKR 25.9 billion representing a 24.5% growth.

Group profit for the year increased by 14.2% to reach Rs 20.5 billion and its return on equity was 21.4%. On a Bank standalone basis, this was yet another industry benchmark at 26.6%. The Group’s contribution to the government in the form of taxes, special levy and dividends amounted to Rs 23.3 billion (2016: Rs 22.9 billion)

Customer deposits grew by 16.6% to reach Rs1,306 billion whilst customer advances grew by 12.8% to reach Rs 1,144 billion. Reflecting the challenging market conditions, gross non-performing loan ratio edged up slightly to 2.0% from 1.9% at end-2016. At the Bank only level, this was maintained at 1.9%. Basel III Tier I and Total Capital Adequacy Levels were 11.5% and 13.7%, respectively at end-2017 (end 2016 under Basel II: 11.1% and 13%).

Chairman Hemasiri Fernando said, “There are currently several technology driven initiatives in process which, once complete, will further augment our capabilities at both at a customer front and an operational back end.”

Source : Daily News

A high level delegation representing the Pakistan Furniture Council (PFC) will visit Sri Lanka this week to explore new avenues for cooperation in infrastructure development, policy and institution development, superior technological capabilities, modernizing work force in knowledge ,skills and attitudes, and marketing and investment opportunities in the furniture sector, PFC Chief Executive Mian Kashif Ashfaq said.

Kashif said that the furniture trade with Sri Lanka is at its lowest level and there is a dire need to explore furniture markets in this part of the region.

He also said that Sri Lanka can provide huge opportunities to Pakistani exporters to market their products including handmade furniture in European markets in collaboration with Lankan companies.

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has been conferred three prestigious international awards, being adjudged the 'Best Bank,' 'Best Bank for Premium Banking Services' and the 'Best Bank for Corporate Social Responsibility' in Sri Lanka by Asiamoney, considered the most authoritative voice for the banking industry in the Asia Pacific region.

The most prestigious award of the ceremony, Asiamoney's Best Bank award recognizes Commercial Bank's profitability in 2017, its growth, relative out performance of peers, and its ability to adapt to changing market conditions and client needs.

The award for 'Best Bank for Premium Banking Services' is a tribute to Commercial Bank's wealth management operations in Sri Lanka, with an emphasis on how its offering has outperformed competitors over the review period. The Bank's strategy in winning net new assets and client acquisition related to business gains, initiatives in areas such as relationship management and digital services, and testimonials from clients contributed to winning this award.

The award for 'Best Bank for Corporate Social Responsibility' recognizes the Bank's CSR initiatives, achievements and milestones reached in the previous year. Although charitable and philanthropic initiatives were considered, the award also focused on the Bank providing financial or market solutions to its customer base.

Commenting on the three prestigious accolades from Asiamoney, Commercial Bank Managing Director/CEO Mr. Jegan Durairatnam said: "These awards highlight the balance Commercial Bank maintains between being a financially-sound institution and a service-oriented bank while also contributing generously towards the pressing needs of the society it operates in. This equilibrium is an affirmation that we are on a stable and sustainable trajectory".

Commercial Bank is the largest private bank in Sri Lanka in terms of its assets (Rs 1.143 Trillion as at 31st December 2017) and is positioned as the Bank with the Highest Market Capitalization, all of which contributed to the 'Best Bank' award.

The Bank's new product launches in 2017 included the country's first Small and Medium Entrepreneurs networking society "BIZ Club;" a hybrid leasing facility; Debit Cards with Chip & PIN technology; a loan on fixed deposits facility; and the Hybrid Debit Card exclusively for entrepreneurs in the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector.

Also corresponding to the award for Best Bank for Premium Services was Commercial Bank's personalized banking services offered for high net worth customers through the brand 'Commercial Bank Elite.' Elite Branches offer a number of exclusive services to clientele including the service of a dedicated Relationship Officer, state-of-the-art meeting room facilities, safe locker facilities and changing rooms for customers who travel from outstations.

In the sphere of CSR, Commercial Bank's largest contribution is towards IT education in Sri Lanka. To date the Bank has donated 175 fully fledged IT laboratories to schools island wide, benefitting over 200,000 students. The Bank has also partnered the 'Smart Schools Project, 'helping introduce a comprehensive Learning Management System (LMS) to 65 schools in the Western Province. The aim of the project is to transform the selected schools in to Smart Schools facilitating digital teaching processes.

Alongside these initiatives, the Commercial Bank has also invested in uplifting healthcare services and funding research related to preventing and mitigating Chronic Kidney Disease; undertaken projects to preserve the culture and heritage of the country and engaged in other CSR activities that contribute to preserving the environment and providing disaster relief among others. At the close of 2017, the Bank's CSR Trust had completed over 300 projects.

The only Sri Lankan bank to be ranked among the Top 1000 banks of the world for seven years consecutively, Commercial Bank operates a network of 261 branches and 756 ATMs in Sri Lanka. The Bank has won more than 30 international and local awards in 2016 and 2017 and has over the years received multiple awards as Sri Lanka's Best Bank, Best Trade Bank, Strongest Bank and Most Respected Bank from a number of local and international institutions and publications.

Commercial Bank's overseas operations encompass Bangladesh, where the Bank operates 19 outlets, Myanmar, where it has a Representative Office in Yangon, the Maldives, where the Bank has a fully-fledged Tier I Bank with a majority stake and Italy, where the Bank operates its own money transfer service.

SriLankan Airlines has achieved a record un-audited annual passenger revenue of Rs. 126.9 billion (US Dollars 830.7 million) for its recently ended financial year of 2017/18 – the highest ever in the Company’s 38-year history. The revenue comes on the back of the recent expansion of the airline to include services to several new destinations such as Gan Islands, Hyderabad and Melbourne and additional frequencies to popular cities in its network.

The airline’s cargo division recorded a spectacular performance – achieving a revenue of Rs. 14.7 billion on its own. Both passenger and cargo divisions exceeded their annual target, enabling the SriLankan Airlines Group – bolstered by an even stronger performance at its best performing business unit SriLankan Ground Services – to comfortably exceed the overall annual revenue target.

The overall Group turnover exceeded one Billion US Dollars, making SriLankan one of the handful of companies in Sri Lanka to reach this milestone. It also becomes the highest revenue generating company amongst all Sri Lankan businesses which publicly report their financials.

The year has been one of transformation for SriLankan, in which it inducted four brand new fuel efficient narrow-bodied aircraft to the fleet – in the process becoming the first A321neo aircraft operator in Asia. It has also made significant improvements to on-board service, including offering flat-bed Business Class seats on all wide-bodied aircraft and Wi-Fi services on nearly half of its fleet.

The airline is currently at the verge of implementing the second phase of its restructuring plan, which would see the airline become a profitable and self-sufficient entity within a short period. The restructuring initiatives would see the airline further fine tune its route network and implement a range of cost optimisation initiatives. It intends to report its audited financial results for FY2017/18, which are required to undergo the review of Auditor General of Sri Lanka, before the end of September 2018.

Crisis ridden, Edirisinghe Trust Investment Finance Limited (ETIFL), a licensed non-bank finance institution will be resurrected with the capital infusion of USD 17 million by a Singapore based Investment Fund Company protecting the disgruntled depositors, Sunday Times reported quoting official sources.

EAP Group has entered into a deal with Singapore based Blue Summit Capital Management Private Limited to sell some of its major subsidiaries to this Singaporean firm at a price of USD 75 million with the sole aim of protecting over 35,000 depositors of ETIFL and Swarnamahal Financial Services PLC.

The Singapore Investment Fund has already remitted USD 17 million to tackle the liquidity issue of ETIFL and tackle the wearing away of capital.

According to a due diligence conducted by relevant parties, the gap indicated in ETI’s balance sheet was Rs17.5 billion at end-March 2017; and this company has 90 percent stake in Swarnamahal Financial Services, which has a negative book value of 1 billion.

EAP Group is expected to receive USD 43 million by the end of April and the balance USD 15 million by mid May this year to finalise the deal of exiting the ownership of their subsidiaries namely Swarnamahal Financial Services PLC, EAP Films and Theatres Private Limited, 40 percent of EAP Broadcasting Company Limited and Swarnamahal Jewellers, the high official source said.

40 percent of EAP Broadcasting Company, which owned the Swarnavahini TV station and several Sinhala and English radio channels, would be sold due to the state restrictions imposed on foreigners to hold shares in media companies.

The deal with Singapore based Investment Fund Company was made by EAP Group following extensive negotiations between the two parties. Central Bank has restricted the withdrawal of maturing deposits and renewal of such deposits of ETI Finance and Swarnamahal Financial Services for six months with effect from January this year.

The CB has placed troubled ETI Finance and Swarnamahal Financial Services PLC of ETI Group under a three-member expert panel comprising former Central Bank Assistant Governor Sepala Ratnayake, former Bank of Ceylon Senior Deputy General Manager P.A. Lionel and former Bank of Ceylon Assistant General Manager H.M. Thilakarathne.

Since then EAP Group has tried to find an investor to infuse fresh capital into two finance companies high official said adding that the owner of a local TV station was among them but their offers were not sufficient to meet the requirement.

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon’s innovative and refreshing use of social media to engage with target audiences has won the Bank the prestigious accolade of ‘Social Media Brand of the Year 2018’ from the Asian Customer Engagement Forum (ACEF).

This special category award was presented to the Bank at ACEF’s 7th Global Customer Engagement Forum & Awards in Mumbai on 7th April. More than 620 entries were received from around the world for the different categories of awards, but Commercial Bank submitted just one and won its category.

The award recognises Commercial Bank’s prodigious success in engaging with potential and existing customers with a largely non-commercial approach on five social media and messaging platforms – Facebook, Viber, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.

“We are delighted to win this award because it illustrates our ability to effectively adapt to changing trends,” Commercial Bank Managing Director Mr Jegan Durairatnam said. “Banks used to be viewed as conservative and traditional, but the phenomenon of social media has made it imperative that we learn very quickly how to use such media to reach out to next generation customers in particular.”

Jettisoning the messaging approach it adopts with traditional media, Commercial Bank has carved a unique niche within the social media space to reach relatively younger audiences with inspirational concepts. Instead of promoting its products and services via Facebook in particular, the Bank provided an opportunity for fans to interact with it by two-way communication, providing relevant, useful and motivational information that would make a difference in their lives.

According to the Bank, this resulted in Commercial Bank’s Facebook Page achieving the highest organic engagement ratios for a Bank in Sri Lanka.

Some of the colourful activations that grabbed attention on Facebook were Commercial Bank’s Big Match Anthem, Big Match Poll, Miss Universe Message Contest, Great Ladies Video, Countdown to Auspicious Times, Origin of Rituals, Waste Recycle campaign, Let’s Build a Beautiful Sri Lanka campaign, Amazing Sri Lanka, Then & Now Photo Challenge, “Week of Love” Valentine’s Day campaign, iPhone Red Giveaway and Dinner Voucher Giveaway to name a few.

Activations, campaigns and posts of this nature resulted in Commercial Bank’s Facebook page recording impressive statistics in 2017. This included 42 million plus impressions, 1.7 million video views, more than 1 million likes/reactions, and more than 300,000 page likes. The Bank recorded the highest level of engagement across Facebook pages of competitor banks, including those that had been on Facebook for longer and had more page likes.

The Bank’s Viber Public Account launched in February 2017 had 143,927 followers at the end of the year, the highest number of followers across the Viber Public Accounts of all banks in the country. The official YouTube channel of the Bank had recorded a watch time of 257,941 minutes as of 31st December 2017.

This is the second consecutive year that Commercial Bank has won an award from the ACEF. The Bank’s e-Passbook app received the Gold for ‘Most Admired Customer Engaged Mobile App’ at the 6th Asia Pacific Customer Engagement Awards in April 2017.

The only Sri Lankan bank to be ranked among the Top 1000 banks of the world for seven years consecutively, Commercial Bank operates a network of 261 branches and 757 ATMs in Sri Lanka. The Bank has won more than 30 international and local awards in 2016 and 2017 and has over the years received multiple awards as Sri Lanka’s Best Bank, Best Trade Bank, Strongest Bank and Most Respected Bank from a number of local and international institutions and publications.

Commercial Bank’s overseas operations encompass Bangladesh, where the Bank operates 19 outlets, Myanmar, where it has a Representative Office in Yangon, the Maldives, where the Bank has a fully-fledged Tier I Bank with a majority stake and Italy, where the Bank operates its own money transfer service.

Bank of China opened its first branch in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo on Wednesday evening.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was the Chief Guest at the ceremony said the opening of the Colombo branch was an important step in strengthening the island's economy and it opened a new chapter in the modern history of bilateral relations.

"The Bank of China is opening in Sri Lanka at a time when Colombo city is transforming into a megapolis. Bank of China has a crucial role to play in helping this island by strengthening our local businesses while also being able to attract more Chinese investments into the country," Wickremesinghe said.

The prime minister added Bank of China's success was also a testament to the rapid economic growth of China in the past three decades and while it was the fourth largest bank globally, it would not be too long before it emerged as the leading bank in the world.

Governor of the Sri Lankan Central Bank Indrajit Coomaraswamy, speaking at the ceremony, hailed the entry of the Bank of China into Colombo as a "major landmark" in the history of the Sri Lankan economy.

He said the bank, with its large network of branches in China and other parts of the world, will not only help expand trade in Sri Lanka but help small and medium enterprises grow and tie up with manufacturers overseas as part of international supply chains.

Chairman of the Bank of China Wang Xiquan said that the hundred-year-old institution now has 600 branches overseas and links with 1,600 financial institutions across the world.

He said, the opening of its Colombo branch will mark the beginning of a new era for the Chinese financial industry to serve Sri Lanka and its Colombo branch was an opportunity to closely focus on the overall strategic cooperation between China and Sri Lanka.

Chinese Ambassador Cheng Xueyuan described Sri Lanka as a "time tested friend" of China and thanked Prime Minister Wickremesinghe for the support he had given to set up a branch in Colombo.

Source : Xinhua