Sri Lanka’s Bogala Graphite March quarter net profit down 51-pct

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lankan graphite miner Bogala Graphite said net profits slumped 51 percent to 21.9 million rupees in the March 2019 quarter from a year ago.

Earnings per share for the quarter were 23 cents compared with 47 cents the year before. The share closed at 10.60 rupees Thursday, down 40 cents or 3.6 percent.

Sales of Bogala Graphite, which is controlled by Germany's Graphit Kropfmuhl Gmbh, fell seven percent to 208.6 million rupees in the March 2019 quarter from the previous year.

The accounts showed a sharp fall in other income while tax costs doubled.

Bogala Graphite had returned to profit in 2018 helped by more sales of high value products and the depreciation of the rupee against other trading currencies like the dollar.

Sri Lanka's DFCC March net falls 45-pct on higher taxes, trading losses

ECONOMYNEXT- Net profits at DFCC Bank fell 45 percent to 590.5 million rupees in the March quarter from a year earlier with higher taxes and trading losses.

The group earnings were 3.05 rupees a share. The share closed trading at 68.00 rupees on Wednesday, up from 67.40 rupees on Tuesday.

Interest income for the quarter grew 17 percent to 10.2 billion rupees from a year earlier while interest expenses grew 20 percent to 6.9 billion rupees, leading to net interest income growing 10 percent to 3.3 billion rupees.

The loan book grew 5 percent to 262.5 billion at end-March, compared to the start of the financial year three months earlier.

"The bank lent prudently and did not pursue aggressive growth particularly to sectors that exhibited stress," Director/Chief Executive Lakshman Silva told shareholders in a statement.

Loan losses fell 96 percent to 23 billion rupees.

Gross non-performing loans at the bank level grew to 3.91 percent by March compared to 3.12 percent a year earlier.

Total capital adequacy fell to 15.62 percent from 16.17 percent at end-December.

Fee and commission income grew 8 percent to 467.2 million rupees in March from a year earlier.

Losses from trading amounted to 413.7 million rupees, down from a 292.9 million rupee gain from a year earlier.

DFCC took a 2.3 billion rupee net fair value loss from financial instruments, compared to a 6.2 million rupee gain.

This hit was balanced out with a similar gain in net other operating income, mostly through foreign exchange gains.

"Fair value losses of 1,407 million rupees and net fair value gain of 603 million rupees were recorded on account of equity securities and fixed income securities respectively," Silva said.

"The steep drop of 13.7 percent in the share price of Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC during the quarter mainly contributed to the reported loss of equity securities, while prices of treasury bills and bonds were favourably impacted by decline in interest rates of government securities."

Income taxes grew 113 percent to 479.4 million rupees amid new and higher taxes on banks.

Deposits at the bank grew to 248.2 billion rupees in March, up 3 percent from December.

Total assets grew 4 percent to 392.49 billion rupees over the three months, while net assets per share fell 3 percent to 166.06 rupees.

Sri Lanka Telecom March quarter net profit up 87-pct

ECONOMYNEXT - State-owned Sri Lanka Telecom Plc (SLT) said group net profit shot up almost 87 percent to 2.2 billion rupees in the March 2019 quarter from a year ago.

Earnings per share rose to 1.22 rupees from 65 cents in the same quarter the year before, according to interim results of the island's main fixed line operator.

The share was trading at 20.50 rupees Thursday morning, up 50 cents or 2.5 percent.

Sri Lanka Telecom group sales rose 7.6 percent to 21.3 billion rupees in the quarter from the year before.

SLT’s core business is its fixed and mobile ICT (information, communications technology) operations with earnings on the increase in fixed-broadband and mobile usage.

The accounts showed pre-tax profit from fixed ICT operations shot up 216 percent to 1.6 billion rupees in the March 2019 quarter from 501 million rupees the previous year.

This includes voice, data, broadband, wholesale, enterprise, cloud, international, and IPTV.

Pre-tax profit from SLT’s mobile operations, its Mobitel subsidiary, rose 26 percent to 1.3 billion rupees during the period.

Sri Lanka’s Colombo Dockyard loss hits Rs187mn in March quarter

ECONOMYNEXT - Sri Lankan ship yard Colombo Dockyard’s losses widened to 187 million rupees in the March 2019 quarter from a loss of 120 million rupees the year before, interim accounts showed.

Sales of the yard, owned by Japan’s Onomichi Dockyard Company Limited, rose 41 percent to 3.7 billion rupees in the period.

Colombo Dockyard loss per share was 2.60 rupees in the March quarter. The share closed at 49 rupees Wednesday, down 90 cents or 1.8 percent.

The accounts showed that Colombo Dockyard’s sip building revenue almost doubled during the quarter and profits increased sharply.

The biggest earnings came from ship repair where sales were flat although profits were up.

Sri Lanka Chevron unit March quarter net profit down 14-pct

ECONOMYNEXT – Chevron Lubricants Lanka said March 2019 quarter net profit fell 14 percent to 603 million rupees from a year ago.

A stock exchange filing said quarterly sales rose 10 percent to 3.3 billion rupees over the same period, although cost of sales rose faster, reducing gross profit.

Earnings per share for the March 2019 quarter was 2.51 rupees.

Chevron Lubricants Lanka shares were trading at 61.60 rupees in mid-morning trade, up 2.50 rupees or 4.2 percent.

The company’s profit margins have been squeezed in recent quarters owing to stiff competition, higher income tax and rising costs from currency depreciation.

However, in February, it won several tenders to supply lubricants to state-owned power stations and transport services

In September 2018, Patrick McCloud took over as chief executive and managing director of Sri Lanka’s Chevron, replacing Kishu Gomes, the firm’s long-serving chief executive, who resigned abruptly in May.

Sri Lanka Seylan Bank March 2019 net up 8.14-pct

ECONOMYNEXT - Profits at Sri Lanka's listed Seylan Bank rose 8.14 percent from a year earlier to 817.4 million rupees in the March 2019 quarter with lower provisioning for bad loans amidst slow credit growth, falling interest margins, expansion costs, and a new debt recovery levy.

Earnings were 2.16 rupees a share in the March quarter, interim financial statement filed with the Colombo Stock Exchange showed.

The stock was trading 2.50 rupees higher on Friday at 59.50 rupees.

Net interest income grew 4.73 percent from a year earlier to 4.5 billion rupees, as interest income rose 18.8 percent to 13.6 billion rupees, and interest expenses grew a faster 27.2 percent to 9.1 billion rupees.

Interest margins narrowed to 4.19 percent, down from 4.24 percent three months earlier.

Net fee and commission income fell 2.9 percent to 965.4 million rupees.

Fair value losses from financial instruments amounted to 622 million rupees, down from a gain of 105 million rupees a year earlier.

Bad loans provisioning fell 40 percent to 589.2 million rupees, "which reflects the improvement in portfolio quality," the bank told shareholders in a statement accompanying the financial results.

Personnel expenses rose 4.38 percent to 1.57 billion rupees and other expenses grew 7.61 percent to 1.37 billion rupees on investments in IT infrastructure, upgrading, and refurbishing branches and staff benefits, the bank said.

The bank had opened two branches in Padukka and Godakawela which add up to 172 banking centres and 210 ATMs as at end March 2019.

A debt repayment levy of 250 million rupees was charged in the quarter which was introduced in the December 2018 quarter.

Seylan Bank's loan book expanded 3.26 percent from end December 2018 to 337.5 billion rupees at end March 2019.

Loans growth was marginal due to rising interest rates, the bank said.

"The growth in credit was driven primarily by term loans, refinance loans and revolving import loans," the bank told shareholders.

Deposits grew 2.65 percent to 367 billion rupees.

Total assets edged up 1.84 percent to 478.3 billion rupees and shareholder funds grew 3.38 percent to 37.4 billion rupees.

Regulatory capital adequacy was at 12.68 percent at end March 2019, down from 13.40 percent from three months earlier, but was above the minimum requirement of 12.50 percent.

Non-performing loans ratio was up to 4.67 percent, from 4.40 percent from three months earlier.

Sri Lanka tourist arrivals fall 7.5 percent in April after bombings

ECONOMYNEXT - Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka fell 7.5 percent from a year earlier to 166,975 in April amid the Easter Sunday bombings, the state tourism office said.

The Easter Sunday bombings killed over 250 people, including 42 foreigners, and injured over 500, including 37 foreigners.

India, traditionally Sri Lanka's largest tourism market, fell to second place with arrivals falling 21.5 percent to 29,860 tourists in April

The United Kingdom took the number one spot, with arrivals falling 5.2 percent to 26,063 tourists.

The Chinese market fell 18.3 percent to 14,263 tourists, while arrivals from Australia fell 31.8 percent to 9,565 visitors.

Two major markets recorded growth despite the terror attacks. Arrivals from Germany growing 56.7 percent to 16,930 holidaymakers while 7,411 tourists came from France, up 23.4 percent.

So far, 37 countries have issued travel advisories on Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority Chairman Kishu Gomes said that based on information available, arrivals are expected to fall 60 percent in May.

He is expecting arrivals to fall 30 percent in 2019, and recover within 13 months or sooner, as long as there are no additional terror attacks.

Sri Lanka is expected to lose 1.5 billion US dollars in revenue from tourism in 2019.

The government has been frequently blocking social media and imposing curfews in different parts of the island since the attacks to maintain security.