Sri Lanka 03-, 06-month Treasuries yields fall

ECONOMYNEXT - Yield on 03-month and 06-month Sri Lankan Treasury Bills fell at Wednesday’s auction while those on one-year bills remained steady, the Central Bank’s public debt department said.

The yield on 03-month bills fell 03 basis points to 8.80% while the yield on 06-month bills fell 14 basis points to 9.75% and that on 01-year bills remained at 10.49%.

The public debt department got bids worth 22.5 billion rupees and accepted bids worth 9.9 billion rupees.

Nimal Perera sells stake in Sri Lanka’s Kalamazoo

ECONOMYNEXT - High net-worth investor Nimal Perera sold his controlling stake in Kalamazoo Systems to Renuka Holdings for almost Rs50 million Wednesday, a stock exchange filing said.

Renuka bought altogether 34,325 shares of Kalamazoo or an almost 70% stake at Rs1,428 a share.

Nimal Perera bought his stake in Kalamazoo Systems, a virtual shell company, in September 2015 at Rs1,067 a share.

Sri Lanka's SEC halts payment on controversial Agalawatte deal

ECONOMYNEXT - Sri Lanka's Securities and Exchange Commission has ordered a stock broker to halt the payment on a 60 percent stake in Agalawatte Plantations, following a complaint by some shareholders of the privately held controlling Mackwoods group.

Members of Sri Lanka's Nonis family are involved in multiple legal battles alleging mis-management of the group by Chrishantha Nonis, who is de facto chairman.

A 60 percent stake of Agalawatte Plantations, a listed company owned by Mackwoods Plantations Private Ltd, an unlisted company, was sold last week, leading to complaints by Nonis's sisters to SEC.

The SEC in a directive said Nirmalie Samaratunga and M J Varma has complained to the SEC that the stake was sold "without due authorisation and without the approval of the shareholders of Mackwoods Plantations Private Limited.

SEC said Shelendra Ranaweera and Lalith Fonseka were the authorised to instruct brokers to sell shares held by the firm it in dematerialized account, but the instructions had come from Chris Nonis.

SEC said it had to verify whether Nonis was authorized to sell the shares and whether shareholders of Mackwoods Plantations had approved the sale.

SEC told Claridge Stockbrokers Private Ltd, a member of the Mackwoods group, to withhold the sale proceeds of the transaction and retain it with the firm until the regulator probed it and issued new instructions.

Sri Lankan shares end little changed; large caps lead losers

Reuters: Sri Lankan shares ended little changed on Wednesday as gains led by top conglomerate John Keells Holdings were offset by losses in large caps, while investors turned cautious ahead of a policy statement by the government in early August.

The benchmark Colombo stock index ended down 0.02 percent, or 1.32 points lower, at 6,414.49 in thin trade.

"Though the market ended in negative note, we have seen some interest in blue chip counters," said Dimantha Mathew, head of research, First Capital Equities (Pvt) Ltd.

"Confidence level is improving and investors are having positive mindset. There is not a lot of selling pressure and investors are slowly collecting at their levels."

Investors are waiting for direction on the country's economic policies that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is expected to announce in August, dealers said.

Turnover stood at 576.1 million rupees ($3.95 million), well below this year's daily average of around 737 million rupees.

Overseas investors, who were net sellers of shares worth 4.9 billion rupees so far this year, were net buyers worth 18.6 million rupees of equities on Wednesday.

Shares in Indo Malay Estate Plc fell as much as 13.83 percent, while Sri Lanka Telecom Plc lost 0.77 percent and Commercial Leasing and Finance Plc fell as much as 2.56 percent.

Shares of conglomerate John Keells Holding Plc ended 1.62 percent higher.

The index touched a three-week high on Friday as investor sentiment got a boost after Sri Lanka raised $1.5 billion in its first sale of dual-tranche eurobonds last week.

The more-than $5.5 billion in offers for the issue showed that global investors were bullish about the prospects of the $82-billion economy.

Yields on local T-bills fell at an auction on Wednesday for the second time since April 15, following the strong response to the bond deal.

($1 = 146.0000 Sri Lankan rupees) 

(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath)

Sri Lanka tobacco taxes among highest in the world

With President Maithripala Sirisena and Health Minister Rajitha Senarathna campaigning to further tax cigarettes, industry analysts have warned that tobacco taxation in Sri Lanka is already among the highest in the world.

According to the WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic (2015), Sri Lanka falls among countries with the highest tax incidence in the world. The report also indicates that developed countries such as America, Japan, Singapore and Australia have far lower tax incidences when compared to Sri Lanka.

Last year Government levies amounted to Rs. 80.4 billion, up from Rs. 66 billion, whilst the Value Added to the State was Rs. 91.6 billion. This amounted to 7% of the Government’s total tax revenue.
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Hayleys-Amaya forays into Maldives with $ 23 m luxury resort buy

Hayleys Plc and its leisure brand Amaya have ventured into the Maldives with a $ 23 million investment (around Rs. 3.4 billion) to buy a luxury resort with 51 villas.

The company said it had ventured into owning and operating an overseas resort in the Maldives which would complement its city hotel and resort portfolio in Sri Lanka.

The investment was made by a Hayleys subsidiary, Luxury Resort Ltd., a company incorporated in the Maldives. It acquired Kuda Rah Island Resort Maldives for $ 23 million on Friday.

Kuda Rah Island Resort, which is located in the picturesque South Ari Atoll, consists of 51 luxury villas and is adjacent to the popular Kuda Rah Thila dive site. It also has the Maldives’ first underground nightclub.

The resort will be branded Amaya Kudarah Maldives and will be under the management of Amaya Leisure Plc.

At present Hayleys owns and operate seven resorts in Sri Lanka through the Amaya brand comprising 659 four and five star class and boutique rooms and one city hotel - The Kingsbury - which has 229 five star rooms. Its leisure business, including inbound tours, accounts for 5% of the Hayleys Group’s revenue or Rs. 4.5 billion and 8% of pre-tax profit Rs. 679 million.

Hayleys is the latest Sri Lankan corporate to tap high value tourism in the Maldives. Among others who have benefitted largely on account of several resorts are Aitken Spence and John Keells Holdings.

In the Maldives, Hayleys has a growing logistics business.

The Maldives is targeting 1.5 million high-spending tourists this year, up from 1.2 million in 2015. The Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation, together with Ministry of Tourism, are carrying out various initiatives as 2016 has been declared Visit Maldives Year.
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