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Asia Capital Ltd has reported a massive 752 percent increase in its operating profit to Rs. 63 million for the nine months ending December 2001.
The company, which is involved in financial services, insurance, apparel manufacturing and information technology, said it added a "remarkable" Rs. 48 million to its consolidated profit over the third quarter. Its subsidiary company Asia Securities recorded an "impressive" turnover with the upturn of the stock market following the December 5 General Elections. "This performance is attributed to the sharp market acumen of the experienced hands at Asia Securities," a company statement said.
Asia Capital's turnover for the nine month period grew 181 percent to Rs. 1.1 billion compared with the same period the year before while gross profit rose 127 percent to Rs. 230 million. The group's net asset value per share is Rs. 10.55. The company has big stakes in Richard Pieris and Co Ltd and Lanka Orix Leasing Limited (LOLC). Asia Capital Ltd also promoted Asia Siyaka Commodities (Pvt.) Ltd, a licensed tea broker.
Asian Alliance Insurance in which Asia Capital Group holds 47 percent also made inroads in the insurance industry by the aggressive launch of their distribution network, the statement said. The company opened six branch offices in six months covering Colombo, Kandy, Negombo, Gampaha, Panadura and Kurunegala. The company's overall Gross Written Premium also showed a year-on-year growth of 45 percent in non-life for the first six months of operation.
Asia Couture and Asia Apparels Trading began operations in their newly-leased factory in Ratmalana during the last quarter. With two factories operating in Embilipitiya and Wattala, the company supplies garments to major brands such as Jones, Nike and Columbia.
The concept of Asia Capital Ltd began with Asia Stock Brokers (Pvt.) Ltd in 1990 becoming the tenth licensed stockbroker on the Colombo Stock Exchange. Asia Capital Ltd. was founded in 1991 to meet the need for creative investment banking and has now placed itself as a diversified holding company.
The board of directors of the company consists of Nigel Austin (Chairman), Dirk Flamer-Caldera (CEO), Asanga Seneviratne, Rusi Captain, Allen Pathmarajah, Ian Pieris, Lalith de S. Wijeratne, and Ajit de Fonseka.
Bairaha Super Mart, the innovative retail chain of the Bairaha Group, has broken new ground with the launch of a free home delivery service at its Dehiwela outlet.
Effective February 8, residents within a designated area may call in their orders and have them delivered to their homes free of charge if the value of the purchases exceeds Rs. 1,500, the company said.
Believed to be the first ever free home delivery service offered by a supermarket chain in Sri Lanka, the service would be a boon to housewives who do not have their own transport, the elderly, indisposed and disabled, Bairaha Super Mart General Manager, Saman Warnasuriya said.
A dedicated telephone number (074 201112), supported by a specially assigned team of staff will provide the service. Callers may dictate their requirements over the telephone and have a member of the staff call them back for reconfirmation.
The service will be available from 10 am to 8 pm daily, the statement said.
German-based Volkswagen group has announced a record-breaking performance in Asia Pacific despite falling overall market numbers and a challenging economic environment, a company statement said.
Regionally, the group posted above average growth of 7.2 percent in 2001 against total market growth of 4.5 percent. Asia Pacific now represents 9 percent of the group's sales, with a total of 461,000 (2000: 430,000) vehicles sold. This represents an impressive increase for the group in Asia Pacific, coming from a sales volume of 92,000 vehicles, ten years ago. Vehicle sales are anticipated to increase even further, boosting the contribution of the region to a two-digit figure.
The group's positive growth in Asia Pacific was revealed at the Volkswagen AG second Annual Asia Pacific Press Conference 2002 in Singapore. Dr. Robert Buchelhofer, Member of the Board of Management, Volkswagen AG, and president for the Asia Pacific region, told journalists that the region presents tremendous potential to Volkswagen and that the company will aggressively pursue opportunities to increase market share, according to the company statement.
The Volkswagen Group currently commands a 5.5 percent total market share in Asia Pacific. It has pledged a total investment of more than Euro 2.5 billion over the next five years to build on its existing strengths, as well as invest in brand building, expanding its dealer network and offering car owners a complete range of vehicles for increased choice.
Fifty years of diplomatic ties between Japan and Sri Lanka were celebrated in Japan this year with a series of events, the first one being a Sri Lanka gems and jewellery display at the 13 International Jewellery Tokyo Show (IJT).
The Export Development Board (EDB) said Sri Lankan items were displayed at the national pavilion at the IJT held at the Tokyo Big Sight from January 23 to 26. A thousand companies from 35 countries, including nine from Sri Lanka, displayed their products at the IJT this year, which serves as an exhibition for active business transactions of gems and jewellery products. Despite the recession in the Japanese economy the Sri Lankan gem and jewellery exporters and the government decided to promote sales aggressively in the Japanese market.
Sri Lanka's exports of gems and jewellery to Japan has increased from Rs. 760 million in 1998 to over a billion rupees in 2001 despite the prevailing economic slow down in Japan.
The Institute of Human Development and Training (IHDT) is organising a workshop on generator maintenance aimed at providing participants with knowledge and skills necessary to operate and maintain company generators.
The workshop will be facilitated by G.B. Wima-laratne, Head, Dept. of Electrical and Electronics, National Engineering Research and Development (NERD), Dr. S. Siv-alingam, Managing Director, Building Services (M&E) Engineering Ltd, Advisor, Institute of Human Development and Training (IHDT) and Tissa Gunasena, Consultant Engineer (M& E).
The target group of the workshop are maintenance managers and supervisors, building engineers and supervisors, electricians, administrative managers, factory managers, operation managers and premises managers, etc.
The workshop will cover each and every aspect of maintenance and service of generators, noise control and environmental aspects and will end with a panel discussion with experts.
US-based Harris Corporation last week announced a US $2.1 million supply agreement with Lanka Bell, a fixed wireless local loop telecommunications service provider in Sri Lanka.
Harris is providing Lanka Bell with its newest broadband wireless access system, ClearBurst MB(TM).
The network upgrade is part of a planned capacity expansion and network upgrade to accommodate Lanka Bell's growing customer base.
The first phase of deployment begins in March in Colombo. Lanka Bell has been providing fixed wireless services in Sri Lanka since 1997 and presently has more than 45,000 subscribers and 100,000 connections throughout the country.
The new Harris equipment will allow Lanka Bell to provide its business customers with leased lines, E-1s, higher-speed Internet access, prioritized data services, and toll quality voice — a unique capability of the ClearBurst technology.
"ClearBurst gives us the higher capacity and efficiency we need to grow our coverage area, improve our service and operate more cost-effectively," Sunil Lakshmanasinghe, general manager of customer operations for Lanka Bell was quoted as saying in an official statement.
"ClearBurst also offers unique quality of service mechanisms and high quality voice service, which is a very important part of our service."
In addition to the ClearBurst MB(TM) base stations and customer units operating in the 3.5 GHz frequency, Harris is also providing the Harris Starview(TM) management system, a PSTN gateway, an ATM core network, and several hops of Megastar(TM) SDH point-to-point radios to be used for backhaul.
Harris' professional services are comprehensive, including design, installation, network integration, site survey, RF planning, and training.
"Harris has the extensive experience in this new technology and the expertise in network integration that we looked for in a supplier," said Nalaka Peiris, general manager of technical operations for Lanka Bell. "Also, the ClearBurst technology is uniquely powerful. The overall system capacity and the sophisticated capability of ClearBurst to prioritize voice and data services is state-of-the-art."
ClearBurst MB operates at 3.5 and 10.5 GHz frequencies and is optimised for narrow channel sizes. It utilises dynamic bandwidth allocation and proprietary media access control-forwarding techniques to maximize efficiency while supporting legacy applications.
It is well-suited for data and telephone applications for the small enterprise and home office and provides capacity up to 35 Mbits/second.
Productivity at Colombo port's Jaye Container Terminal (JCT) during holidays has increased following better attendance by dockers, the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) said in a statement.
On Independence Day, February 4, JCT achieved very high productivity on main line container vessels with a peak of 81.4 moves per hour on m.v. "NEWPORTBAY" a vessel owned by P&O Nedlloyd, a member of the Grand Alliance. Another vessel, APL Agate, achieved a vessel productivity of 68.4 moves per hour.
Contrary to the usual practice on holidays, employees attached to JCT have shown their determination to take on the challenge of improving efficiency by maintaining normal attendance, the SLPA said.
The Industrial Technology Institute (ITI) successor to the Ceylon Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research (CISIR), that functions within the purview of the Ministry of Economic Reform, Science and Technology has formulated a strategic 100-day revolutionary programme.
It said within the 100-day programme priority will be provided for 'Science and technology for peace' where the ITI will initiate a water quality-monitoring programme with the universities in the North and East to assess the quality of surface and ground water for domestic use that may be contaminated from the use of weapons, agrochemicals and poor sanitary conditions.
"With respect to good governance the institute is planning to implement a computerised cost management system for budgetary discipline and better control of expenditure that can serve as a pilot model for other government departments and institutions and also formulate and implement an effective staff evaluation system," an ITI press release said.
To assist in the development of the rural economy, training programmes will be conducted in Matale and Ratnapura on the manufacture of bakery and confectionery products respectively.
A dryer using waste heat of flue gas for drying medicinal plants for the Ritigala ayurvedic drug-processing centre will be fabricated and installed and a sodium silicate plant will be commissioned at Gampaha.
With respect to health and nutrition, an iron-rich food supplement for pregnant and lactating mothers will be developed, the raw material for ten important ayurvedic preparations will be standardised, a training programme on hygiene and sanitation for the catering sector will be conducted and food and aqua feed from stabilised rice bran will be formulated.
Youth will be given priority by the ITI, opening its doors to school children for providing awareness of functions and activities through two 'Open days' at the end of March and also by formulating a scheme to take S&T to the rural youth on a regular basis.
With respect to environmental management, five effluent treatment plants for a textile industry, a distillery and three service stations will be commissioned and a waste water recycling plant based on reverse osmosis technology for a leading sewing thread manufacturer will be designed.
In conformity with one of the major objectives of the institute to support industry, the institute will undertake approximately 1,000 testing services in the areas of water, agro and food products, chemicals and materials for maintaining and improving quality of industrial products and processes and provide at least 450 services to industry on calibration and repair of equipment and industrial measurements.
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