Biz Briefs

Lanka hosts Caterpillar regional seminar

Sri Lanka recently hosted the Caterpillar Asia Dealer Service Training Focus Group Seminar, the first time an event of this nature was hosted in Sri Lanka by the Caterpillar Group. Caterpillar is a global leader in the construction and engineering sector which has more than 200 dealers across the world.

This seminar was facilitated by United Tractor and Equipment (UTE), the dealer for Caterpillar in Sri Lanka. Representatives from India, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, Singapore and Korea were present.

NCAP records Rs 248m PAT

NDB Capital Holdings PLC (NCAP) recording an impressive consolidated quarterly income of Rs. 361 million which translated to a consolidated PAT of Rs. 248 million. At company level, quarterly income and PAT stood at Rs. 197 million and Rs. 182 million.

Revenue and Net Profits of the Company during 1Q, 2014, has seen a drop compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. This apparent dip in performance is due to NCAP Group recording an extraordinary profit during the first quarter of 2013 owing to income from investing approximately Rs. 6.7 billion in cash it received via the divestment of direct and indirect stakes held in Aviva NDB Insurance PLC.

Japanese inflation hits 23-year high

Consumer prices in Japan rose at their fastest pace in 23 years in April, following an increases in sales tax. Prices rose 3.2% compared with the corresponding period last year, beating analysts' forecasts of a 3.1% jump.

The Japanese government has taken various steps over the past few months to try and reverse this trend, and have set a target of a 2% inflation rate.

The measures, which include boosting the country's money supply, have started to have an impact and consumer prices in the country which have now risen for 11 months in a row.

 - BBC

Huawei and Singer launch launch Honor 3C

Huawei Technologies Lanka and Singer, the national distributors for Huawei, launched a series of mid-range smartphones in Colombo last week.

Huawei Honor 3C, Ascend Y600, Ascend G730, Ascend G6 and Media Pad Youth are some of the products launched by the two companies. The launch coincided with R and B and hip-hop artist and music producer Iraj Weeraratne being appointed Sri Lanka's online ambassador for Huawei smartphones.

Huawei Technologies Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, CEO Daniel Sun said that there were 1.5 million reservations for Huawei Honor 3C within 36 hours of its launch in China.

Manhattan Fish Market in Rajagiriya

Restaurant chain, the Manhattan Fish Market (MFM) opened its second branch at Rajagiriya last month. The restaurant expanded operations to cater to discerning seafood lovers.

Gestetner launches multifunctional copiers

Gestetner of Ceylon PLC launched a multifunctional device embedded with RICOH EZ-charger and ESA-transformer to control the rising costs of printing, photocopying and scanning.

The Ricoh C2003SP multifunctional device has many features that distinguish it from other competitive models in the market. The 'ESA Transformer' solution transcends beyond OCR (Optical Character Recognition), allowing hard copy documents to be scanned into editable formats such as Microsoft Excel.

Ricoh EZ-Charger allocates resources including copying, printing and scamming by setting quotas that can be unique to single users or groups secured by a user ID.

People's Bank Arts Circle hosts Vesak Bhakthi Gee

The People's Bank Arts Circle recently organised Vesak Bhakthi Gee to celebrate Vesak at the bank's head office premises. The Bhakthi Gee was a presentation by staff members, who also contributed the lyrics. Music and melodies were composed by musician Kithsilu Wickremasinghe. People's Bank Chairman Gamini Sedara Senarath, CEO and General Manager V. Vasantha Kumar and corporate and executive management were also present.

Dansala at Seylan Bank, Homagama

An ice cream dansala was organised for the first time by the staff of the Homagama branch of Seylan Bank at its premises on May 15. Here Branch Manager Pradeep Peiris serves an ice cream cone to a child.

Harsha Amarasekera heads CIC Holdings

CIC Holdings PLC has named President's Counsel Harsha Amarasekera as its new Chairman, succeeding Lakshman Fernando who resigned after an eighteen-year tenure.

A non-executive Director of CIC Holdings PLC since 2005, Amarasekera was serving as Acting Chairman of the Board since January 1, following the retirement of Lakshman Fernando on December 31, 2013.

Amarasekera will be the fourth Chairman of the diversified agriculture and chemical company, one of the leading agricultural value addition companies.

The company also went through a major restructuring program last year. Amarasekera took over on May 23.

Seylan Bank re-launches Thilina Sayura scheme

Seylan Bank recently re-launched its Thilina Sayura scheme with a range of benefits and rewards recently.

It works on the principle that 'the more one saves, the more one wins'. As its name rightly suggests, Thilina Sayura is a specially crafted scheme which brings gifts and cash rewards to customers who have maintained a minimum balance of $500 (or equivalent designated currency) in savings or fixed deposits NRFC or RFC accounts.

The scheme gets even more exciting when the account balance increases. The rewards and gifts also increase proportionately.

AMW fuels 4X4 enthusiasts' get-together

Associated Motorways (Pvt) Limited organised a 4x4 family day out in Ja-ela recently. The event organised with the Nissan Patrol Club was open to all Nissan Patrol and Nissan X-Trail customers to test the extreme features of their vehicles and enjoy a day-out with the extended Nissan family.One of the key highlights of the event was the showcasing of the oldest Nissan Patrol to the latest addition to the Patrol family, the luxury Nissan Patrol Y62.

Selma Technologies partners Dassault Systèmes

Selma Technologies (Pvt) Ltd. (STPL), an engineering software solution provider, entered into a partnership with Dassault Systèmes, a 3D design software, 3D digital mock up and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions company.

The partnership will help STPL bring cutting-edge design solutions across industry verticals including academia, industrial equipment, defence, ship building, oil, gas and energy, processes and utilities and tyre manufacturing and rubber processing.

Managing Director, Selma Technologies (Pvt) Ltd, Ruwan Manchanayke said, "This partnership will further assist us in delivering best of design solutions to many of the country's largest engineering companies, who have been associated with us since inception.