Sri Lanka's Access Engineering March net up 31-pct

ECONOMYNEXT - Sri Lanka's Access Engineering Plc, a construction group, said profits in the March 2017 quarter rose 31 percent to Rs831 million from a year earlier.

Sales rose 14 percent to Rs5.2 billion in the March quarter, according to interim accounts filed with the stock exchange.

Quarterly earnings per share rose 30 percent to 83 cents from 64 cents. The share last traded at Rs26.30.

EPS for the financial year ended 31 March 2017 rose 9.3 percent to Rs2.70 with annual net profit at Rs2.7 billion while sales rose 16 percent to Rs20.4 billion.

The increase in annual profits came mainly from the construction business with profit from its Sathosa Motors subsidiary, which holds the franchise in Sri Lanka for Isuzu Motor vehicles, falling.

Stockbrokers close outstation branches

By Duruthu Edirimuni Chandrasekera

Some stockbrokers, with the stock market continuing to show negative returns, are closing their outstation branches in a move to cut costs and manage their bottom lines.

While brokerages are faced with several serious issues and their cash-flows are strapped, some companies are mulling pay cuts as well. Some closed nearly four branches outstation, they told the Business times adding that altogether about 12 branches were closed by March. The Securities $ Exchange Commission (SEC)’s new rules in capital adequacy which direct the implementation of a risk based Capital Adequacy Requirement (CAR) of 1.2 times the risk requirement of stock brokers subject to a minimum liquid capital requirement of Rs. 35 million is also curtailing operations, they said.

These firms had met with both the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) and the SEC and requested for ‘assistance’, they said.

Officials of both institutions confirmed this saying that some firms had approached them in March for assistance but they had not specified ‘what’. CSE officials said that since April, the CSE has showed buoyancy and the stockbrokers haven’t come back to them on closing branches.

They said that some run their branches on CSE premises which are subsidised by the CSE. “Branches at Matara, Kandy, Kurunegala, Negombo and Jaffna are highly subsidised. They pay a minimal rent only and no utilities,” a CSE official said, adding that now with retailers rejoining the CSE things may change for the better.
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