Corporate News

Hayleys MGT revenue up 14% to 14.9m in 1Q

Hayleys MGT Knitting Mills, Sri Lanka’s largest manufacturer of polyester and polar fleece fabric has achieved a turnover of US$ 14.9 million in the first quarter of 2008-09, but profits fell due to disruption of production as a result of inclement weather conditions.

According to results released, the company’s profit after tax and Economic Service Charge (ESC) at $ 705,228 reflected a decline of 19 per cent over the corresponding quarter of last year, despite a 14 per cent growth in turnover.

Hayleys MGT Joint Managing Director Bandula Weerasinghe said that floods in the Kalutara district in the first week of June had isolated the company’s manufacturing plant, making it accessible only by boat.

As a result, the company had lost approximately 100,000 kilograms of production, which would have contributed $ 700,000 to revenue.

“If not for this unfortunate occurrence, the company’s performance would have been on par with that of the first quarter of 2007-08, despite the significantly higher costs of furnace oil and electricity,” Weerasinghe said.

A major supplier to top international brands such as Marks and Spencer, Next, Nike, Reebok and Decathlon, Hayleys MGT is the first fabric manufacturer in Sri Lanka to be certified as compliant with the world’s most stringent Social Accountability Standard, SA8000.

The standard represents a comprehensive and flexible system for the management of ethical workplace conditions throughout global supply chains and assures a humane workplace through respect for workers’ rights.

The company also won the National Productivity Award in the Large Scale Manufacturing category for its achievements in improving labour and capital productivity.

CSE sets records in 2007

A notable achievement for the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) in 2007 was the raising of Rs. 44.6 billion by 21 listed companies through Rights issues, which is the highest amount recorded in the history of the CSE. The largest ever net foreign inflow of Rs. 11.2 billion was also recorded during 2007, according to the CSE’s Annual Report 2007.

High interest rates, high inflation and the current security situation, however, had a negative impact on the performance of the price indices during the year 2007.

After a continuous bullish trend since 2001, the CSE recorded a negative growth in both price indices for the first time in 2007. The All Share Price Index (ASPI), which opened the year at 2,722.4 points, continued on an upward trend for the first two months and reached an all-time high of 3,016.4 points on February 13.

The downward movement of the ASPI, which commenced in March 2007, continued through the year, to close at 2,541, recording a decline of 6.7% for the year.

The Milanka Price Index (MPI) reached its highest point of 4,214.8 on February 26, 2007 but declined during the year to close at 3,291.9, recording a decrease of 11.3% for the year 2007.

Despite the decline in the Price Indices, market activity in 2007 was comparable with that of 2006. The average daily turnover for 2007 was Rs. 435.6 million, 0.2% below the average daily turnover of Rs. 436 million recorded in 2006.

The average daily turnover at the end of February 2007 was Rs. 789.4 million, the highest recorded and remained above Rs. 500 million during the first half of the year.

Market capitalisation of the Colombo Bourse has seen a significant growth over the past few years. The highest ever market capitalisation of Rs. 938.6 billion was recorded on February 13, 2007. The market capitalisation as at the end of 2007 of Rs. 820.7 billion was 1.7% lower than the year’s opening.

HP secures No. 1 position in AP UNIX Server Revenue

HP secured the No. 1 position in overall UNIX Server revenue in Asia Pacific (inc. Japan) in CYQ1, 2008 according to industry analyst firm IDC (1).

HP captured 31.7% revenue market share of the Asia Pacific UNIX Server market in CYQ1, 2008. UNIX server revenues for HP in Asia Pacific (inc. Japan) grew more than five times faster than the overall UNIX server market growth on a year on year basis.

The company also held the No. 1 positions in the High-end Enterprise and Midrange Enterprise segments of the UNIX server market in Q1 2008 garnering 41.2% and 34.4% of the market, respectively.

Customers’ requirements in terms of high-availability, security, scalability and virtualisation were the major reasons for the growth of HP-UX in Asia Pacific. Companies across industries have been deploying business critical applications for core banking, payments, billing, mediation and ERP/SCM on HP Integrity Servers with HP-UX as operating environment.

HP Integrity with HP-UX is also used extensively to power key Business Intelligence infrastructure projects in the region.

Other key drivers for the increase of UNIX Server revenue include a significant growth in migration projects from mainframes to HP Integrity, rapid implementation of blade servers including HP Integrity BL870c and the adoption of HP Superdome servers.

CSE workshop on ‘Planning your financial future’

The Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) has initiated educational programs for different groups of the investing public. One such program is a workshop on ‘Planning Your Financial Future - Plan to Retire Rich!’ designed especially for the pre-retirement segment, consisting of young professionals and individuals interested in planning ahead.

The workshop will be held from August 8-9 at the Galadari Hotel.

From a personal and financial perspective, retirement is one of the most important events in life. Realising a comfortable retirement takes sensible planning and years of perseverance.

This will be an ongoing responsibility, going well into one’s golden years.

Planning one’s financial future is all the more important now, as this responsibility is gradually being transferred to individuals.