Financial Times

New CDL head amidst poor performance
Colombo Dockyard Ltd., which has come in for criticism from certain shareholders for a sharp downturn in profits and lack of new building orders, got a new chairman and managing director last week.

Sinichi Tatebe, who has experience in shipbuilding sales, replaced Koichi Yamanaka as chairman of the company, a subsidiary of Japanese shipyard operator Onomichi Dockyard Co. Ltd. Yamanaka, who has been chairman since 1998, retired.

CDL general manager Mangala Yapa was nominated to the board of directors by Onomichi Dockyard and appointed managing director and chief executive officer at Thursday's annual general meeting. Revenue from shipbuilding, which had accounted for a big share of profits in recent years, fell by 96 percent to Rs 91.2 million last year, from Rs 2.5 billion. An anonymous shareholder, writing to the media, blamed Yamanaka and Yapa for the poor performance, saying they had not been dynamic enough to secure new orders. He alleged Yamanaka's term had not been extended because of the company's poor performance.

Orders for patrol boats from the navy and tugs from the Sri Lanka Ports Authority dried up following the ceasefire with the LTTE and a freeze on government spending.

Managing director Mangala Yapa said the downturn was a "temporary setback" and that the yard had already taken measures to move into new markets. "We haven't got new building contracts because we had been supplying only to Sri Lanka and the Maldives and they simply have not built anything. Our customers have not gone anywhere else."

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