Corporate News

Touchwood posts Rs 284 m net profits

Touchwood Investments Limited (TIL), Sri Lanka’s only public quoted commercial forestry Plantation company, posted a net profit of Rs. 284 million for the financial year ending March 31, 2008. The company’s revenue for the same period has been approximately Rs. 600 million.

“Our profits have increased by nearly four-folds in comparison to the previous financial year. The revenue too has increased by 29%. This portrays the stable commercial growth of TIL. These figures also clearly indicate that the public has placed their trust on TIL and have increasingly invested in various schemes offered by us”, the CEO of TIL Asitha Koralage said.

“The Net Asset per Share and Earnings per Share have appreciated from Rs. 122.03 to Rs. 153.87 and Rs. 5.79 to Rs. 31.85 during the financial year ending March 31, 2008”, he said.

TIL which tied up with Sri Lanka’s pioneers in leasing, Lanka Orix Leasing Company (LOLC) recently, has taken steps to utilise the widespread LOLC branch network to create an islandwide presence.

“Through the utilisation of nearly 22 LOLC branches, we will be able to serve and attend to the needs of our customers residing in outstation areas much more efficiently and create convenience of access to them”, Director/General Manager of TIL, Channa Abeygunawardene said.

TIL which was incorporated in 1999 with the approval of the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI), has carried out Teak, Mahogany, Sandalwood and Vanilla plantation projects in about 1,500 acres of land during the past nine years. Most of these commercial forestry plantations are in the Ratnapura, Badulla, Matugama and Matale districts.

TIL has embarked on an expedited forestry plantation program through which commercially valuable species of trees are to be planted in over 1,000 acres within one year. This program will increase the total TIL managed commercial forest area to 2,500 acres. The company also expects to provide employment to over 600 Sri Lankans by mid 2009.

CSE branch network completes nine years

The CSE set up its first regional branch office in Matara in 1999, with the aim of expanding the services of the Stock Market throughout the country to service the growing base of domestic investors. Due to the high level of success of the branch in Matara, the CSE continued to expand the branch network to Kandy (in 2003), Kurunegala (in 2005) and Negombo (in 2007).

The Matara and Kandy branches of the CSE celebrated their ninth and fifth anniversaries on June 4, 2008.

By the late 90’s, Foreign Investors accounted for more than 60% of the total market turnover of the CSE. However, this changed with the expansion of the branch network since 1999. At present local individual investors account for around 55% of the total market turnover.

Due to the growth experienced by the Stock Market in recent years (annual average of 29%), the CSE has attracted a considerable amount of new investors to the market, many of them through the branch network.

In recent years, the market has been driven by local investors and the CSE branch network has played a major role in increasing the retail investor activity around the country. The branch network has successfully attracted over 7,000 new investors to the stock market since 2006 and contributed over 18% to the total local individuals’ turnover for the year 2008 to date.

Though trading on the CSE takes place through a fully computerised system, investing in the stock market is quite a simple procedure. Investors can enter the Stock Market through any of the 21 licensed Stockbroker Firms.

Their offices are in most of the main cities around the island, as well as at CSE branches. Eight Stockbroker firms each are housed at the CSE branch offices in Matara, Kandy and Kurunegala, while the CSE Negombo branch houses nine stockbrokers.

The CSE aims to reach out to more investors, especially those outside Colombo and bring the Stock Market closer to them through its future initiatives such as specialised educational programs for teachers and students of schools and universities and extensive awareness programs using mass media for existing and prospective investors.

Kalum Disnaka only HR candidate to be awarded Japan schol

Kalum R. Disnaka, Employee Services Manager of Suntel Ltd was recently selected as the only HR candidate from Sri Lanka to be awarded a scholarship for the Asia Personnel Manager Training Program 2008 in Japan.

Jeremy Huxtable, MD, Suntel Ltd. commenting on this achievement said”, This is the second time that a Sri Lankan candidate has been selected for this program and the management and I would like to congratulate as well as commend Kalum Disnaka for his achievement.

Having had seven years of prior experience in the field of Human Resources Management, Kalum continues to excel in performing his duties as well as display a high level of competency and commitment to his job. He has proved to be exceptionally capable at Human Resources leadership and management, no doubt a result of his experience and knowledge in the field.”

The scholarship offered to Disnaka by the NIPPON-KEIDANREN International Cooperation Centre (NICC) through the Employers Federation of Ceylon (EFC) is awarded to one Sri Lankan per year and provides the selected candidate with the opportunity to participate in a seven-month long workshop in Japan.

Janashakthi - basis of allotment

The Janashakthi Initial Public Offering (IPO) which was oversubscribed received 6,797 applications to the value of Rs. 885 million.

The initial tranche of Rs. 12.00 each of 16.5 million shares was oversubscribed by 4.5 times, and both tranches were oversubscribed by 2.2 times taken in total. After much discussions the Board of Directors have decided to allocate the shares considering the trend in which applications were received.

Investors who applied for 100-10,000 shares will be given their full request while investors who have applied for 10,000-100,000 shares will be allocated 50% (subject to minimum of 10,000 shares).

Investors who have applied for 100,100-3,000,000 shares will be allocated 30% (subject to a minimum of 50,000 shares) and investors who have applied for more than 3,000,100 will be allocated 21.45% (subject to minimum of 900,000 shares.)

According to a spokesman for Merchant bank they received 6,797 applications for 73,728,300 shares while the company has allocated 33,000,000 shares.

DEF will bridge gap between private and public sector

The base of the economy of the country is the micro, small and medium scale entrepreneurs (SME) and the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL) has been making a concerted effort to strengthen this base, said Secretary General/CEO, FCCISL Samantha Abeywickrama, when he made a special presentation on their District Enterprises Forum (DEF) at the monthly meeting of the Government Agents conducted by the Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs at SLIDA.

The meeting was presided over by Secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs D. Dissanayake. He said thus the role of SME is of critical importance to the Sri Lanka economy and in this sphere of developing the SME sector, the public-private partnership also plays an equally important role, but unfortunately Sri Lanka lags behind in public-private partnership when compared to the other South Asian countries.

‘Global Vision’ Award for Sunil Bharti Mittal

The US-India Business Council (USIBC), a premier business advocacy organisation of the United States and India, honoured Chairman and Group CEO, Bharti Enterprises Sunil Bharti Mittal, with the ‘Global Vision’ award.

The annual awards are accorded to luminaries from various fields for their significant contribution in bringing India and the United States closer together.

The award is a recognition of Mittal’s “revolutionary foresight in bringing telecom connectivity to benefit the lives of the common man, for his entrepreneurial zeal, and for his efforts to organise India’s agricultural sector - unlocking wealth on the family-run farm and bringing efficiencies to India’s farm-to-market supply chain.”