Biz Briefs

Papyrus opens SES

Papyrus Papers’ first three Samsung Experience Stores (SES) were opened recently. Set up and operated by Papyrus Papers (Pvt) Ltd under a franchise awarded by John Keells Office Automation (JKOA), these new stores are at Battaramulla, Wattala and Ja Ela. The franchisee Papyrus Papers intends to rapidly extend this concept to an islandwide chain of similar stores within the next 18 months.

The Samsung Experience Store is an exclusive, custom-designed retail outlet for sales and after-sales support for Samsung mobile phones, and is intended to be a place where people can share, play and learn through the latest technology releases from Samsung.

Bank of America reports $276m loss

The Bank of America has posted a $276 million (£165 million) loss for January to March. Its results included $6 billion in legal expenses to settle allegations that it misled mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the housing crisis in 2008, and for other mortgage-related matters.

Revenue declined 3% compared with the first quarter of 2013, to $22.7 billion. Nevertheless, the bank said it had “solid results” and that costs from its mortgage loans business fell by $1 billion.

In March, the firm agreed to pay $9.5 billion (£5.7 billion) to settle four lawsuits filed in 2011 by US regulatory agency, the Federal Housing Finance Authority (FHFA).

The bank agreed to pay $6.3 billion in cash and buy back $3.2 billion in mortgage securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. - BBC

Singer, top marketeer of Smartphones

Singer (Sri Lanka) PLC is considered to be the number one marketeer of smartphones in Sri Lanka, based on the fourth quarter results of the Sri Lanka Mobile Handsets Market Review published by CyberMedia Research.

The review said that ‘smartphone sales (shipments) touched 120,000 units in Sri Lanka during 4Q, 2013 and 450,000 for CY 2013. During 4Q, 2013 Samsung was the leader in the smartphones segment with a 21.2% share followed by Huawei with 19.6%.

In comparison to the market research conducted by CyberMedia in the third quarter, Huawei’s popularity increased by 4.1% between the two quarters.

Asia's small firms need more non-bank financing - Report

Beijing, China: Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of Asia’s economies, but they need better access to finance to grow and generate badly needed new jobs for the region, said a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) report.

“Most of Asia’s smaller firms are faced with difficulties in obtaining finance,” said Noritaka Akamatsu, Deputy Head of ADB’s Office of Regional Economic Integration, which produced the inaugural edition of Asia SME Finance Monitor.

“SMEs need to tap a wider range of non-bank financing options in addition to bank loans, including capital markets if they are to realise their potential,” he said.

SMEs – defined differently in different countries but generally with a small workforce or low assets – make up 98% of all businesses and provide jobs for 66% of the labor force in Asia, but they represent only 38% of the region’s gross domestic product (GDP), indicating that governments can boost economic growth by developing SMEs.

However, small firms have trouble getting the finance they need to grow. They lose out to larger companies where bank loans are concerned, particularly with banks cutting back their lending to SMEs in the wake of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis as they avoided risk and sought financial stability.