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SEC
prepares charge sheets in insider dealing probe The SEC itself
has prepared charge sheets against Michael Mack, its former chairman
and a former chairman of Aitken Spence, and against Norman Gunewardene,
another ex-director of the conglomerate. These have
been sent to the Attorney General's Department for approval. It
is also to serve a show-cause notice on Manil de Mel, the other
ex-director of Aitken Spence involved in the probe, as to why legal
proceedings should not be instituted against him under the SEC Act. Meanwhile,
no new appointments have yet been made to the SEC nor have any of
the other commissioners resigned despite the Attorney General K.C.
Kamalasabayson, in his ruling, saying they had "acted improperly"
in getting a second opinion on the probe despite the original ruling
by the A-G's Department. The investigation centres largely around the timing of the sale of shares with the accused alleged to have sold at a time they were privy to price sensitive information about losses sustained by the company following a big fraud, criminal activity and alleged exchange control violations at its Aitken Spence Garments subsidiary. SEC Director General Dayanath Jayasuriya has resigned over the furore and a new appointment is yet to be made by Finance Minister K.N. Choksy. Nihal
Abeysekera, new FCCISL president Presently, he also functions as the Chairman of Regional Industry Service Committee, Sabaragamuwa Province, National Cleaner Production Centre (NCPC), Small and Medium Enterprise Developers (SMED) and as President of Sri Lanka Sub-contracting and Partnership Exchange (SPX). In the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he functions as an Executive Council Member and he is a Member of the Advisory Council for Industry. Abeysekera has been connected with the UNIDO-Sri Lanka Integrated Industrial Development Support Programme from the conceptual stage and functions as the National Project Director on a voluntary basis. His contribution in the implementation of this programme is highly commendable and has achieved the projected objectives. A past chairman of the Ceylon National Chamber of Industry, he has been associated with the FCCISL since 1993 and has been its Vice President for six years consecutively and it's Senior Vice President for the last two years. Grant
McCann Erickson placed third for Best Public Service Advertising
A
key component of the global group's 100th Anniversary celebrations
was the introduction of a global outreach programme - "1000
Voices - 100 Years" designed to build upon their 100-year tradition
of giving back to communities in which they do business. The programme
resulted in truly outstanding, highly creative pro-bono campaigns
from all parts of the world. A senior executive
panel led by Chief Creative Officer Marcio Moreira reviewed all
the 1000 voices campaigns and Grant McCann Erickson Sri Lanka's
campaign on "Abuse against Women" was placed third. Executive Creative
Director Laila Gunesekere and Creative Director Russell Miranda
worked on this campaign. While congratulating
Grants on their achievement, Executive Director of the Women In
Need Savithri Wijesekere commended the team on the sensitivity shown
to the issue of violence against women. The commercial of this campaign was previously adjudged Best TV Commercial of the Year at the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing Awards. CIMA
Students' annual conference The speakers are Raj de Silva, Managing Director, LOLC, Udena Wickremasooriya, CEO/MD, Shadowline (Pvt) Ltd, Dr Uditha Liyanage, senior lecturer, Post Graduate Institute of Management, Sujeewa Devaraja, CEO/Jt MD, John Keells Computer Services (Pvt) Ltd and Ranjith Fernando, Secretary, Ministry of Enterprise Development, Industrial Policy and Investment Promotion. The conference is held annually to help CIMA students to get an insight into the business and corporate sector by listening and interacting with leading professionals. The Sunday Times is a media sponsor of the event. SriLankan
Airlines heading for profits? "Next
year's focus is aimed at getting the airline in the black …
into profits. Since 1979, when this airline started, the airline
never made money. The airline group has made money but not the airline
alone. If we can achieve that - and that's our target - it would
be quite an achievement," noted airline CEO Peter Hill. He
said the airline group, which includes revenues from catering and
ground services, is expected to make a profit for the financial
year ending March 31, 2003 but he could not say by how much. "January
2003 has exceeded expectations for the group and if we have two
good months in February and March then I would expect a decent profit
from the group." Last year the
airline and its subsidiaries reported a profit of Rs. 2.1 billion
against a loss of Rs. 5 billion loss in the 2000/2001 year. The
profits came as a result of the airline being freed of its obligation
to pay leases after four planes were destroyed in the July 2001
Katunayake airport attack. Hill said that by December this year
the exclusive catering rights given to SriLankan Airlines under
a five-year agreement in 1997, ends. The airline runs the only catering facility at the airport, preparing thousands of meals for all airlines landing in Colombo. In line with opening up airport and aviation services, the government is likely to open catering services to others too. Seylan
Merchant Bank group profits rise In results
released last week the SMB Group reported a pre tax profit of Rs.
11.3 million, up 122 percent from a loss of Rs. 51.7 million in
2001. Meanwhile, the Bank reported a pre tax profit growth of 104
percent to Rs. 2.2 million from a loss of Rs. 55.6 million in the
corresponding period in 2001, according to a group statement. Net
Income of the Group rose by 44 percent to Rs 535.7 million while
the Bank reported a growth of 53.5 percent to Rs. 468.8 million,
during the period under review.It reported a net interest income
growth of 3102.3 percent to Rs. 85.6 million. The Bank's net interest
income rose by 1559.9 percent to a positive income of Rs. 57.2 million
from a negative income of Rs 3.9 million in 2001. Director/General
Manager of SMB Rohan Senanayake said this year has been a good one
for SMB, because the Group and the Bank have re-established profitability.
"The improvement in the economic conditions and the decrease
in lending rates resulted in better margins in existing leases,"
he explained. "Our Fortune 2002 campaign which was launched
to increase our client base by attracting new investments, also
contributed significantly to the bottom-line." He added that if the conditions remain consistent, the bank is confident that 2003 will be a profitable year too. "We hope to concentrate on better quality recruitment, implementation of different strategies and training programmes for the sales force, improving our IT infrastructure and the linking of all the main branches to the Head Office this year. These changes would help us serve the masses better making SMB an innovative provider of financial products and services," he said. Merchant Credit reports net profit of Rs. 33.6 m Merchant Credit of Sri Lanka, owned by the Bank of Ceylon and the Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka, has reported a net profit of Rs. 33.6 million for the year ending December, 2002. The company said in a statement that its deposit base had increased to Rs 1.5 billion. Merchant Credit is the country's fourth largest finance company. |
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