Tuesday 3 March 2015

Sri Lankan stocks fall to 3-wk closing low on rising market interest rates

(Reuters) - Sri Lankan stocks fell to a three-week closing low on Tuesday and marked their third straight session of losses due to a rise in market interest rates.

The central bank raised yields on treasury bills between 86 basis points and 91 basis points at a weekly auction on Tuesday. It scrapped a lower repo penalty rate of 5 percent from Monday, five months after it adopted the measure to boost credit growth.

The main stock index ended 0.13 percent, or 9.48 points, down at 7,234.92, its lowest close since Feb. 9.

"There'll be a slight slowdown in the market temporally with the rise in interest rates," said Dimantha Mathew, manager, research, at First Capital Equities (pvt) Ltd.

Shares of Selinsing Plc fell 20.13 percent, while Dialog Axiata Plc dropped 1.69 percent.

Market heavyweight John Keells Holdings Plc ended 0.29 percent up and accounted for 54.8 percent of the day's turnover.

Day's turnover was 1.81 billion rupees ($13.62 million), more than this year's daily average of 1.39 billion rupees.

Foreign investors were net buyers of 234.9 million rupees worth of shares, extending the year-to-date foreign inflow to 1.8 billion rupees. 

($1 = 132.9000 Sri Lankan rupees) 

(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

Removal of the 5 per cent Special Standing Deposit Facility Rate

In September 2014, the Central Bank rationalised the access to the Standing Deposit Facility (SDF) of the Central Bank with a view to encourage commercial banks to utilise the substantially high amount of excess liquidity prevailing in the market to enhance credit flows to the private sector at reasonable interest rates. Consequent to the rationalisation of the SDF, overnight interest rates fell below the policy rate corridor, and the special SDF rate of 5 per cent became the effective floor for overnight money market rates. This has resulted in a faster downward adjustment in market interest rates during the last few months as most market interest rates reached historically low levels in nominal terms. 

Benefiting from lower interest rates and higher demand for bank funds, credit to the private sector revived after a setback recorded particularly in the early part of 2014. Accordingly, private sector credit growth picked up towards the latter part of 2014 recording an increase of Rs. 223.9 billion in 2014 while it increased by Rs. 76 billion during the month of December 2014 recording the highest monthly increase. By end 2014, on a year-on-year basis, private sector credit grew by 8.8 per cent. 

Given the signs of sustained increase in credit flows to the private sector, the view of the Central Bank was that restrictions placed on the access to the SDF is no longer required. Accordingly, the 5 per cent SDF rate was withdrawn with effect from 2 March 2015. The Central Bank is also of the view that removal of the special SDF rate of 5 per cent would help to stabilise overnight interest rates within the policy rate corridor of the Central Bank.
CBSL

SLT Group 2014 PBT up 12% to Rs. 8.2 b

Sri Lanka Telecom PLC (SLT) said yesterday the Group continued to maintain its overall growth momentum during 2014.

Group revenue for the year was up by 8% to Rs. 65 b. All the segments of the Group comprising Fixed, Mobile and Others positively contributed to this increase.

Owing largely to price escalations coupled with the impact of an out of court settlement on civil litigation in relation to the import of the IPTV system in 2007/2008, operating cost of the Group increased by 12% to Rs. 46.3 b during 2014, compared to the year before.

The Group profit before tax of 2014 increased by 12% year on year to Rs. 8.2 b. Refund received from the Telecommunication Development Charge (TDC) of Rs. 1.2 b during the year against Rs. 0.6 b of the previous year that has also contributed to this bottom line growth. Group profit after tax of 2014 was Rs. 6 b up by 11% year on year. During the year the Group invested Rs. 20.2 b in its infrastructure.

The holding company, Sri Lanka Telecom PLC reported Rs. 38.9 b revenue during 2014 with 6% year-on-year growth. Despite the threats on voice-related revenue, wholesale, enterprise, data and IPTV related revenues have demonstrated positive upward trends. 

Continuous investments in new technologies and infrastructure have largely contributed in revenue growth.

During the year under review alone the company has invested Rs. 16.4 b in infrastructure and technologies. Operational costs of the company have increased by 10% during the year, resulting from the same reasons given above to Rs. 29.5 b as compared to the year before. The company profit before tax dipped by 3% to Rs. 4.8 b, from the year before. 


Impact of the above mentioned litigation, amounting to Rs. 673 m, has largely negated the profits.

SLT Group Chairman P.G. Kumarasinghe Sirisena, while praising the Group results, stated that he, together with other Board members including those who have been appointed recently, would drive the company towards its strategic objectives aimed at supporting digital Sri Lanka by capturing new opportunities and rising above prevailing challenges.

He expressed confidence on the well-educated professional workforce and strong market presence coupled with diversified infrastructure in enhancing the value of stakeholders. 

He also acknowledged all the individuals who have contributed to bring the company to an outstanding level and emphasised on the fact that the company has achieved this success while also ensuring the highest standards of social responsibility towards Sri Lanka, as the national communication service provider of the country.

SLT Group Chief Executive Officer Lalith De Silva was very optimistic on the company performance, despite the onetime charge of Rs. 673 m for an out-of-court settlement that impacted, negating the results.

“We have taken every effort to fulfil our infrastructure requirements, not only by replacing the existing ones, but also by introducing new broadband technologies such as LTE and carrier grade Wi-Fi and FTTH. Phase 5 of the i-Sri Lanka program was completed enabling the entire network for broadband. The existing IPTV system was replaced by a new system offering the experience of the latest technologies to the customers. The national backbone network was completed not only for the use of SLT but also for the use of all the service providers and enterprises in Sri Lanka. The company itself is transforming to a modern IT environment, to serve the customers efficiently and effectively. Further, our state-of-the-art AKAZA cloud solution will definitely empower the enterprises to focus on strategic directives of their core businesses. Hence, the company is well equipped to take leadership in the nation’s journey towards an ICT-enabled Sri Lanka while enhancing the value of shareholders,” he said.

Mobitel rings Rs. 30 b revenue, Rs. 2.8 b profit
Mobitel continued its growth momentum recording a double digit revenue growth of 11% for financial year 2014. In absolute terms, Mobitel crossed the Rs. 30 b milestone to record a sales turnover of Rs. 30.60 b in 2014 compared to Rs. 27.48 b in 2013, an increase of Rs. 3.12 b.

For the fourth quarter of 2014 Mobitel reported a revenue of Rs. 7.92 b which is an increase by 13% compared to the fourth quarter of 2013.

Although voice market in Sri Lanka has almost reached saturation, growth in voice revenue segment continued in 2014 as well. Mobitel’s continuous commitment and investments towards scaling and upgrading its network infrastructure have resulted in better customer experience which in turn boosts revenues for the company. Considerable investment in latest and timely upgrades in broadband technologies such as 3G and 4G paid off during the year with a notable increase in broadband revenues compared to 2013.

A growth trend similar to that of revenue continues across the company’s profitability indicators with EBITDA growing by 8% recording Rs. 9.8 b and EBIT growing by 12% recording Rs. 4 b. The strong growth in in EBITDA and EBIT can be attributed to prudent cost management initiatives coupled with measures to enhance productivity.

For year 2014 Mobitel reported an after tax profit of Rs. 2.8 b as against Rs. 2.4 b in financial year 2013, recording a 15% improvement. The growth in profits was achieved despite one-off write-off on Mobitel network assets amounting to Rs. 601.8 m. If not for this write off, Mobitel performance in relation to all key profitability indicators would have reflected a higher growth. The increase in profitability is also attributable to optimum asset utilisation, increased productivity and relatively stable macro environment that prevailed during 2014.
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