Sri Lanka’s CIFL awaits response from German investor for bailout

(LBO) – Sri Lanka’s troubled Central Investment and Finance Company says they are awaiting a response from a prospective German investor indicating their future plan of action to revive CIFL.

In a stock exchange filing, the company said they submitted all clarifications to the investor delegation who visited the island recently.

A high level delegation from Vandell Financial Services arrived in Sri Lanka last week to discuss opportunities of investing in the troubled finance company.

The delegation also met President and Finance Minister in addition to other fact finding missions to regulatory authorities.

“The investors have expressed their desire to acquire 100% of the ownership of the company,” the company said.

“We have now submitted all the clarifications to the Investor delegation and awaiting their response from them in the form of a MOU indicating the future plan of action setting the milestones in reaching the final objective of reviving CIFL and handing over the management to the new investors.”

The German investors would infuse 5 billion rupees to revive CIFL, according to the President of CIFL Depositors Association, media reports said.

The delegation has also shown interest in investing in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.

Lanka IOC eyes Indonesia lubricant market

(LBO) -Lanka IOC says they are exploring the option of exporting lubricants to some of the regional countries and hope to enter the Indonesian market soon.

“As of now we are already exporting to the Maldives and are thinking of a few other countries,” Shyam Bohra, managing director Lanka IOC said at the introduction of its “Global Container” packaging for SERVO Lubricants, Thursday.

“We are looking to enter Indonesia by the end of the year.”

Currently there are 13 players in the Sri Lankan market and the total consumption is 49,000 tonne per year.

“We are pleased to introduce the Global Container concept to Sri Lanka. With this we expect a sales growth of 2-3 percent,” Bohra said.

“Our market share is 17 percent at the moment and we are looking at increasing it to 20-25 percent in the next five years.

Lanka IOC blends Servo brand of lubricants at lube blending plant, Trincomalee and is the only private oil company other than the state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) that operates over 199 retail petrol/diesel stations in Sri Lanka.