Sri Lanka Financial News

Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) Friday said it has agreed to buy an 80% stake in Dubai-based Astro Shipping Company for $185 million (about ₹1,551 crore) as part of its strategy to expand fleet and boost earnings. «Astro's acquisition is part of our plan to become one of the world's largest marine operators,» said Ashwani Gupta, wholetime director and CEO of APSEZ. «Astro will add 26 ships to our current fleet of 142 tugs and dredgers, making a total of 168 ships. This will also give us access to many important customers and strengthen our presence in the Arabian Gulf, Indian subcontinent, and Far East Asia.» The deal valued Astro Shipping at $235 million. The company offers maritime services including ship management, shipping agency, freight forwarding, and chartering.

Sri Lanka's Debt Sustainability Agreement, Foreign Minister Ali Sabry has said resuming negotiations with the IMF could jeopardise its next tranche due in December and subsequent disbursements from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. The conditions for the Debt Sustainability Agreement (DSA) have now become part of the law and cannot be easily altered, Sabry said. He emphasised that renegotiating the deal could lead to further economic instability in the island nation, which is recovering from the worst-ever economic turmoil it suffered in 2022. Sri Lanka declared its first-ever sovereign default in mid-April 2022, having run out of its foreign exchange reserves. The halt to the debt services meant that the multilateral creditor nations and commercial lenders could not extend fresh financing to the country.

Virat Kohli moved up two rungs to eighth place while his captain Rohit Sharma dropped a spot to sixth in the latest ICC Test rankings released here on Wednesday. Joining Rohit and Kohli in the top 10 is young Yashasvi Jaiswal, who has moved up a spot to seventh. Veteran England batter Joe Root maintained his place as the top ranked Test batter in the world following their success in the opening Test against Sri Lanka in Manchester. But Root's teammate Harry Brook has made a massive jump on the back of scores of 56 and 32 during that Old Trafford contest.

Colombo on Monday on a three-day visit to Sri Lanka during which it will also engage in a Passage Exercise with a Sri Lanka Navy vessel. The Indian Navy's frontline warship was welcomed by the Sri Lanka Navy in compliance with naval traditions, the island nation's navy said in a press release. INS Mumbai, a 163-metre-long Destroyer, is manned by a crew of 410 members. This is the ship's first visit to any port in Sri Lanka and will be the eighth port call by Indian ships this year, the Indian High Commission said in a press release on Sunday. Its commander Captain Sandeep Kumar called on the Commander Western Naval Area, Rear Admiral Chinthaka Kumarasinghe at the Western Naval Command Headquarters upon the ship's arrival.

Pakistan Cricket Board has named 22-year-old Fatima Sana as their captain, replacing Nida Dar for the upcoming ICC Women's T20 World Cup in UAE from October 3-20. The 37-year-old Nida is going through a lean patch and the team under her suffered T20I and ODI series defeats in England before making a semi-final exit in the Women's Asia Cup last month. The selectors however have retained Nida in the squad that has at least 10 players who appeared in the last edition of the global showpiece.

Sri Lanka will take part in a bike expedition in October this year along the Buddhist Circuit 'tracing the footsteps of enlightenment.' Organized jointly by the governments of all three nations and the Royal Thai Monastery, the bike expedition will start from Lumbini, Nepal and end in Colombo, Sri Lanka. «This is a historical bike expedition between the tri-nations; India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. This is a Buddha Circuit bike expedition starting from Lumbini to Colombo which covers the seven states of India, namely: UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Bengal, Odisha, Telangana and Tamil Nadu,» Rahul Patil, co-convener of the Heartfulness Buddha Circuit Ride told ANI.

T20 World Cup, two people familiar with the matter said. Sydney Morning Herald was the first to report that Star has pressed for a renegotiation. India lifted the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, which was held in the US and the West Indies to promote cricket in newer geographies; however, many advertisers skipped the event since fewer Indians were likely to watch these matches due to inconvenient timings, in a setback for Star.

ICC T20 World Cup match in New York between arch-rivals India and Pakistan has received a «satisfactory» rating from the governing body of the sport. The highly-anticipated match between these two arch-rivals at New York's Nassau County International Stadium was a low-scoring thriller. After being cleaned up for 119 runs, with Rishabh Pant scoring 42, Pakistan could manage only 113/7 in their quota of 20 overs, with Jasprit Bumrah bowling a game-changing spell of 3/14 in four overs. The drop-in pitches in New York were under scrutiny throughout the tournament because of low-scoring matches and uneven, unpredictable bounce. During the Sri-Lanka South Africa clash, SL could score only 77 runs in 19.1 overs and SA chased down the target in 16.2 overs.

Digital connectivity in India is set to get a major boost, with three large undersea cable projects — 2Africa Pearls, IndiaAsia-Express (IAX) and India-Europe-Express (IEX) — slated to go onstream between October and next March, expanding existing capacity by more than four times, said people familiar with the matter. 2Africa, among the longest subsea cable systems in the world, spanning over 45,000 km, has investments from Bharti Airtel and Meta, among others. It will have a capacity of 180 terabits per second (tbps), connecting 33 countries, including Sunil Mittal-led Airtel’s landing station in Mumbai. IAX and IEX involve contributions from Reliance Jio, among others. Boost for Data Centre Operators:

Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah said that the decision on pacer Mohammed Shami's participation in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy away from home later this year will be taken after the report from National Cricket Academy (NCA). India fast bowler Mohammed Shami is making significant strides in his recovery from an ankle injury that has kept him out of cricket since the ODI World Cup last November. The expectation is that he will be ready to participate in India's home season, starting with a Test series against Bangladesh in September. Shami is currently in the final stages of his rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. He resumed bowling last month for the first time since his surgery and has been gradually increasing his bowling workload, reporting no pain.

Cricket Council (ICC) announced the match schedule on Sunday for the upcoming ICC U19 Women's T20 World Cup 2025 in Malaysia. Sixteen teams from around the world will take part in the 41-match event where the future stars of women's cricket will announce themselves over 15 days of competition from 18 January to 2 February 2025. Over and above these exciting matches will be 16 warm-up fixtures played from 13 to 16 January, in preparation for the main event, as per the ICC. The second edition of this exciting tournament comes on the back of a successful inauguration in South Africa in 2023 where India beat England by seven wickets in a thrilling final to be crowned the first-ever winners. It will also be the hosts, Malaysia's first appearance in the U19 Women's T20 World Cup as well as Samoa's first appearance in an ICC World Cup event.

Sri Lanka wicketkeeper-batsman Niroshan Dickwella has been suspended indefinitely due to an alleged doping violation, the national governing body Sri Lanka Cricket said. Dickwella failed a doping test conducted by the Sri Lanka Anti-Doping Agency under World Anti-Doping Agency guidelines during the Lanka Premier League.

Deutsche Bank has appointed Manik Chhabra as its head of global corporate coverage for India and Sri Lanka, starting August 19, sources aware of the development said. Chhabra is moving to the German bank from US-based lender Citibank where he held many senior corporate banking roles over the last 22 years. He leaves Citibank as India head for mid corporates. A Deutsche Bank spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.

Ricky Ponting reckoned that Joe Root could surpass batting legend Sachin Tendulkar's tally of runs in Test cricket, provided the England batting mainstay stays 'hungry' and keeps scoring at a consistent rate for the next four years. Root became only the seventh batter in the history of the conventional format to cross the 12,000-run mark — a feat he achieved recently during the Edgbaston Test against the West Indies. With 12,027 runs in 143 Tests at 50.11 with 32 centuries and 63 fifties so far, Root is also overall the seventh highest run-scorer in Tests and could overtake Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara (12,400 runs) and his former teammate Alastair Cook (12,472) soon. Tendulkar leads the table with 15921 runs from 200 Tests.

Indian Army contingent on Thursday celebrated the 78th Indian Independence Day in joint exercise 'Mitra Shakti' with various activities, including a yoga session with their Sri Lankan counterparts. As part of the Independence Day commemorations, the Army troops participating in the Joint Exercise enthusiastically celebrated the day by practising various asanas led by Yoga instructors from the Indian Army contingent. The troops of the Indian Army contingent also undertook the 'Har Ghar Tiranga' campaign at their camp in the Army Training School in Madurouya, Sri Lanka, according to an official statement. «The Tricolour was proudly displayed by the participants, honouring the national pride of all Indians. The effort reflects the pride the Indian Army attaches to the Tricolour, for which every soldier has proudly made the supreme sacrifice over the years,» the statement said.

Kartik Sharma, the Kohli lookalike featured in the video, is no stranger to attention. A software engineer by profession, Sharma has amassed a significant following on Instagram, with over 7.6 lakh followers, thanks to his uncanny resemblance to the cricketer. He regularly shares content that highlights his likeness to Kohli, sometimes even donning the Indian cricket jersey to amplify the effect. Sharma himself reacted to the viral video, commenting, «Fun to be at One8,» under Sachdeva’s post.

Standard Chartered Bank on Wednesday announced the appointment of Aditya Mandloi as the new Head of Wealth and Retail Banking (WRB) for India and South Asia, effective from August 1, 2024. In his new role, Mandloi will oversee the bank's WRB operations in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal, working from the bank's Mumbai office. With 27 years of experience at Standard Chartered, Mandloi has held various positions in Product Management, Collections, and Sales, including leading the WRB business in Bangladesh.

Indian Army's K-9 squad is participating in the 10th edition of India-Sri Lanka joint military exercise 'Mitra Shakti'. The 10th edition of the India-Sri Lanka Joint Military Exercise Mitra Shakti began on August 12 at the Army Training School, Maduru Oya, Sri Lanka. The Exercise will conclude on August 25. Indian contingent comprising 106 personnel is being represented by a Battalion of Rajputana Rifles along with personnel from other arms and services. The Sri Lankan contingent is being represented by personnel from the Gajaba Regiment of the Sri Lankan Army.

₹5,200, a jump of 23% from a year earlier. Similarly, a Bengaluru-Kochi ticket now costs around ₹3,500, a 46% spike from a year ago. While air traffic slowed in July on account of monsoon, travel picked up in August.

But India has made a strong comeback in Sri Lanka, wresting significant advantage from China. And going by the grammar and tone of S Jaishankar's just-concluded visit to Maldives, Muizzu, too, seems to be course-correcting. So, there's more than what meets the eye — a fresh dynamic that reflects changing geopolitical and economic realities. Take the Maldives. In May, IMF warned the country against a ballooning Chinese debt folio. A month later, Fitch downgraded its rating on grounds of 'increased risks associated with the country's worsening external financing and liquidity metrics'. It assessed that weakening foreign-reserve buffers and rising external government debt 'increase the challenges for the new government to meet its substantial upcoming external debt-servicing obligations and keep the currency peg to the US dollar'.

Garuda Aerospace has expanded its operations in Sri Lanka, the first as part of its Global Garuda initiative which aims to increase the company’s presence in 50 countries, its chief executive officer, Agnishwar Jayaprakash, told ET. The Chennai-based company said it chose the island nation as the local drone policies were still developing and the new government was keen to promote technology and precision in agriculture and industries, seeking to reduce dependence on tourism. «We are traditionally a precision agricultural drone company. This year, we've seen revenues touch over Rs 100 crore and we saw a lot of attention coming in from overseas for our precision agriculture drones in particular. So we felt this was the right time to start making measured and cautious steps to expanding in overseas markets,” Jayaprakash said. “Sri Lanka because of its proximity to India, its developing drone regulation and smaller market was the perfect launchpad for us before venturing into other regions.»