29/09/2008 22h24

WASHINGTON (AFP) -

The US House of Representatives Monday dramatically rejected a 700-billion-dollar Wall Street bailout, sending stocks crashing to their worst single day loss ever and deepening the US financial crisis.
As a palpable sense of fear ricocheted through Washington, President George W. Bush said he was “disappointed” that the bailout foundered, as Democrats accused Republican conservatives of killing the bill for ideological reasons.
The president immediately summoned top advisers to tackle the latest crisis “head on,” and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was seen hurrying into the West Wing of the White House.
Shockwaves reverberated through the presidential race and congressional campaigns just five weeks before the November 4 general election, and a blame game erupted between Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill.

Amid panic selling on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 777.68 votes (6.98 percent) and the Nasdaq crashed 199.61 points (9.14 percent) to 1,983.73, its lowest since 2005.
In scenes of suspense, tension and shock rarely seen on the House floor, Republican foes of the bill and rebel Democrats combined to doom the bill by 228 votes to 205, after Bush had pleaded for its passage.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi pledged to go back to work to pass a new bill, but a senior Democratic lawmaker said nothing would happen until at least Thursday as many members had gone home for the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah.

The 15-minute vote was kept open for 40 minutes as Democratic and Republican leaders made desperate attempts to twist arms of lawmakers who voted no.
One senior Democrat said Republicans had reneged on a pledge to get 50 percent of their caucus plus one member to vote for the bailout, pointing out that 60 percent of Democrats backed the plan.

Leading Democrat David Obey reacted bitterly, saying Republican leadership, including the president and Republican presidential nominee John McCain, “have lost total control over their own party.”

“Evidently some of those guys would rather lose an economy than lose an election.”
House Republican Leader John Boehner blamed what he called a partisan speech to the House by Pelosi shortly before the vote.
“I don’t know that we know the path forward from this point. We need everybody to calm down and relax and get back to work.”

But Barney Frank, the top House Democrat in charge of negotiating the bill, dismissed such critics of Pelosi’s speech as pure “pettiness” and said Republicans were trying to cover up their embarrassment over the split party.

“Give me those 12 people’s names and I will go talk uncharacteristally nicely to them,” he said.
Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama meanwhile appealed for calm, seeking to stablize global markets and show composure-in-a-crisis leadership credentials.
“I’m confident that we’re going to get there but it’s going to be a little rocky,” he said in Colorado.
“It’s important for the markets to stay calm because things are never smooth in Congress and to understand that it will get done,” Obama said.

There was no immediate reaction from McCain, who had boasted that he had helped bring the rebel Republicans along to vote for the deal.
But his economic advisor Doug Holz-Eakin blamed Obama for politicizing the situation — an identical charge McCain critics threw at the Arizona senator last week after he injected himself into the process.

“Barack Obama failed to lead, phoned it in, attacked John McCain and refused to even say if he supported the bill,” Holz-Eakin said.
Republican Congressman Paul Broun from Georgia compared the bill to a “huge cow patty with a marshmallow stuck in the middle of it.”

Indiana Congressman Mike Pence, also a Republican, warned that the bailout ran counter to the principles of American government.
“Economic freedom means the freedom to succeed and the freedom to fail,” he said.
The bailout proposal would grant the Treasury secretary authority to buy up toxic mortgage-related assets in troubled banks in hopes of easing the flow of credit and reviving the moribund housing market.

The bill would have immediately released 250 billion dollars to enable the government to buy up troubled assets, and sets a ceiling for all purchases of 700 billion dollars.
It also prohibits “golden parachutes” for CEOs or other executives who lose or leave their jobs at companies participating in the plan as long as the Treasury holds equity in those firms.

119-year old banking institution Washington Mutual decided to file for bankruptcy protection after selling its banking operations to JPMorgan Chase. Washington Mutual, which has an asset of over USD 300 billion, will be the second major financial entity after Lehman Brothers to file for bankruptcy protection. The fall of Washington Mutual, popularly known as WaMu, is being viewed as the biggest banking failure in the American history.

by Glenn Curtis (Contact Author Biography)

While some investors are trailblazers and do their own research, many investors attempt to mimic the portfolios of well-known investors, such as Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway, in the hope of being able to cash in on those investors’ world-class returns. But copying another investor’s portfolio, particularly an institutional investor’s portfolio, can actually be quite dangerous. So, before you jump on the copycat bandwagon, get to know the pitfalls of this approach to investing.

An Inability to Adequately Diversify Holdings

It is not uncommon for a major institutional investor, such as a mutual fund, to own more than 100 stocks in a given portfolio. Even Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffett’s investment vehicle), which has a tendency to invest in fewer stocks as opposed to more, owns shares in some 38 (as of June 30, 2008) different public companies! (Read Build A Baby Berkshire and Warren Buffett’s Best Buys to learn more about investing like Warren Buffett.)Institutional investors like Warren Buffett are able to spread their risk over a number of companies so that if one particular company, sector, industry, or even country hits a rough patch, there are other investment holdings that may pick up the slack. Unfortunately, most individual investors have neither the funds, nor the financial wherewithal to ever achieve such diversification. (See what can happen when diversification goes too far in The Dangers Of Over-Diversification.)So what do investors do when they realize that they cannot maintain as many positions as an institutional investor?Usually, the individual investor will copy or mimic a small portion of the institution’s holdings (that is, heavily invest in some holdings and ignore others entirely). Unfortunately, this is where trouble can occur – especially if one or more of those core holdings heads south.An individual investor’s inability to adequately mimic an institution’s diversification profile and mitigate risk is a major reason why many individuals fail to outperform major mutual funds – even if they maintain similar holdings. (To find out more about institutional sponsorship as a gauge of stock quality, read Institutional Investors And Fundamentals: What’s The Link?)

Different Investment Horizons

Many people like to refer to themselves as longer-term investors, but when it comes down to it, most investors want to see results in the first 12 to 24 months that they own a particular stock. In fact, according to an often-cited November 2001 study by Gavin Quill (a senior vice president and director of research studies at Financial Research Corporation, a financial services research and consulting firm), mutual fund holding periods in 2000 were only about three years! That is well shy of the more than 30 years that Berkshire Hathaway has owned shares of Washington Post Company. In other words, on average, institutions seem to have much more patience than their individual-investor counterparts do. (Read more about how investing for the long haul can benefit you in Long-Term Investing: Hot Or Not?)In short, even if individual investors achieve diversification similar to the institutions they are looking to mimic, they might not be able afford or have the patience to sit on a given investment for five or 10 years, as they may need to tap into the funds to buy a home, to pay for school, to have children or to take care of an emergency situation, and doing so may adversely impact their investment performance.

Institutional Knowledge/Research

In spite of regulations meant to level the playing field between individuals and institutions (such as Reg FD, which outlines a company’s disclosure responsibilities), institutions often employ teams of seasoned industry analysts. These trained experts typically have many contacts throughout the supply chain and tend to have more frequent contact with a given company’s management team than the average individual investor. (Read more about the role of Reg FD in Defining Illegal Insider Trading.)Not surprisingly, this gives the institutional analysts a far better idea of what is going on at a company or within a given industry. In fact, it is almost impossible for the individual to ever gain the upper hand when it comes to such knowledge. (Learn more about Wall Street analysts in Three Kinds Of Analysts And What You Need To Know About Them.)This relative lack of knowledge about future earnings potential, opportunities for growth, competitive forces, etc. can adversely impact investment results. In fact, a lack of knowledge is another major reason why many individual investors tend to underperform mutual funds over time. (You can piece together your own analysis if you have the right information. Read Do-It-Yourself Analyst Predictions to find out how.)This is compounded by the fact that analysts can sit and wait for new information ,while the “average Joe” has to work and attend to other matters. This creates a lag time for individual investors, which can prevent them from getting in or out of investments at the best possible moment.

Keeping Tabs on Institutions Is Tough

Even if an individual has enough money to adequately diversify him- or herself, the willingness to hold positions for an extended period of time and the ability to accurately track and research multiple companies, it is difficult to copy the actions of most institutions.Why? Because, unlike Berkshire Hathaway, many mutual funds buy and sell stocks with great vigor throughout a given quarter. In fact, take T. Rowe Price as an example. According to the company’s website, its Capital Opportunity Fund (which invests primarily in domestic securities) has a turnover rate of 63.5 as of July 31, 2008. That’s big. This makes positions like these are hard to mimic because even if you had access to databases that track institutional holdings the information is usually updated on a quarterly basis.What happens in between? Frankly, those looking to mimic the institution’s portfolio are left guessing, which is an extremely risky strategy, particularly in a volatile market. (Learn some ways you can keep track of institutional investment activities in Keeping An Eye On The Activities Of Insiders And Institutions.)

Trading Costs Can Be Huge, and Treatment May Vary

By definition, institutions such as mutual funds have more money to invest than the average retail investor. Perhaps not surprisingly, the fact that these funds have so much money and conduct so many trades throughout the year causes retail brokers who service these accounts to fawn over them.Funds often receive favorable treatment. In fact, it’s not uncommon for some funds to be charged a penny (or in some cases a fraction of a penny) per share to sell or purchase a large block of stock – whereas individual investors will typically pay 5-10 cents per share.In addition, even though there are rules to prevent this (and time and sales stamps that prove when certain trade tickets were entered), institutions often see their trades pushed ahead of those of retail investors. This allows them to realize more favorable entry and exit points. (Read Patience Is A Trader’s Virtue and A Look At Exit Strategies for a discussion of setting entry and exit points.)In short, the odds are that the individual, regardless of his or her wealth, will never be able to garner such preferential treatment. Therefore, even if the individual was able to match an institution in terms of holdings and diversification, the institution would probably spend fewer dollars on trades throughout the year, making its investment performance, on a net basis, better overall. (Learn where you may be paying more than you think in The Hidden Costs Of Investing.)

Bottom Line

While it may sound good in theory to attempt to mimic the investment style and profile of a successful institution, it is often much harder (if not impossible) to do so in practice. Institutional investors have resources and opportunities that the individual investor cannot hope to match. Retail investors may benefit more, in the long run, from an investment strategy more suited to their means.
by Glenn Curtis, (Contact Author Biography)

The directors of JKH announced today they will buy back their own shares (1 share for every 25 held) at LKR 90 per share.
The last traded price of JKH was LKR 86.50. Last year they sold their shares at LKR 140 per share as a right issue.

Today All share price index closed 15.30 points lower at 2212.57 while Milanka index closed 29.42 points lower at 2489.86.

Market heavy weights Dialog Telekom & Sri Lanka Telecom both lost their value & closed LKR 9 & LKR 42.50 respectively.

Two indices moved different directions. All share price index closed 3.08 points lower at 2227.87 & MPI closed 6.37 higher at 2518.68.
Turnover for day was only LKR 76.3 Million.
However LKR 20 Million net foreign inflow recorded.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Excerpt of the Minutes of the meeting of the Board of Directors of Associated Electrical Corporation PLC held on 23rd September 2008 at No.185, Union Place. Colombo.

“the Board further resolved that a. the acquisition by the Company is in the interests of the Companyb. the terms of the offer and the consideration to be paid for the shares at the Offer Price of Rupees One thousand Eight Hundred (Rs.1,800) per share is in the opinion of the Company’s Auditors a fair Valuec. the Board is not aware of any information that has not been disclosed to shareholders which is material to an assessment of the Value of the shares and as a result of which the consideration offered for the shares are unfair to shareholders accepting the offer.d. The offer not being made to the two major shareholders , namely Ajita De Zoysa & Company (Pvt) Ltd and Commercial Agencies (Ceylon) (Pvt) Ltd. Controlled by Mr. Ajita de Zoysa and his family is fair on the basis that the offer being made primarily consequent to certain shareholders requesting the Company to purchase their shares and Mr. Ajita de Zoysa on behalf of the two Companies informing the Board that they would not be willing to accept such Offer.The Company call up an Extraordinary General Meeting of the shareholders in terms of the Companies Act to approve the Purchase”CERTIFIED EXTRACT OF ARTICLE 13The Company may purchase or otherwise acquire any of its own shares on accordance with the provisions of the ACT

Offer to purchase shares of Associated Electrical Corporation PLC (Company) by the Company in terms of Section 64 of the Companies Act No.7 of 2007 from the Shareholders willing to sell at a price of Rupees One Thousand Eight Hundred (Rs.1,800) per share.

Pursuant to request made by certain Shareholders at the Annual General Meeting held on 10th September 2008 the Board after due consideration in terms of Section 64 of the Companies Act No.7 of 2007 resolved today to purchase from Shareholders willing to sell 276,652 Shares constituting 9.24% of the total shareholding of the Company held by the Shareholders of the Company other than the 2,628,476 shares constituting 90.76% held by the two major shareholders (being parties in concert) namely Commercial Agencies (Ceylon) (Pvt) Ltd and Ajita De Zoysa & Co (Pvt) Ltd on the basis of Mr. Ajita De Zoysa confirming to the Board that the said Companies would not be accepting such Offer.The 267,652 Shares shall be purchased at Rupees One Thousand Eight Hundred (Rs.1,800) per share which in the opinion of the Companies Auditors, is the Fair Value per Share.The Company proposes to Call up a Meeting of the Shareholders on 20th October 2008 in terms of the Companies Act No.7 of 2007 read together with Article 13 of the Articles of Association of the Company, to obtain by an Ordinary Resolution the approval of the Shareholders for the Company to purchase its own shares in terms of Section 64 of the Act.Subject to the Resolution set out in ’3′ above being approved at the said Meeting, the Offer to purchase shares would commence on 21st October 2008 and close on 04th December 2008.Attached hereto is a certified excerpt of Article 13 of the Articles of Association of the Company, which permits the Company to Purchase its own shares.

CEYLINCO FINANCE PLC

Amalgamation of Ceylinco Finance PLC & Asian Finance LtdThe Board of Directors have resolved to amalgamate with its subsidiary Asian Finance Ltd subject to the final approval of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in the form of a share swap as per the details set out below.Ratio – Asian Finance Ltd shareholders will receive seven (7) ordinary shares of Ceylinco Finance PLC for every two (2) ordinary shares held by them in Asian Finance Ltd (7:2). Any fractional shares arising from this will be settled by cash.No. of Shares to be Issued – A maximum of One Million Ninety Four Thousand Three Hundred & Forty Five (1,094,345) ordinary shares of Ceylinco Finance PLC to the Minority Shareholders representing 11% of the shares issued by Asian Finance Ltd. Balance 89% of shares held by Ceylinco Finance PLC in Asian Finance Ltd will be cancelled.Current Stated Capital – Rs. 340,317,560/= (consisting of Rs. 199,860,500/= from the previous “A” Class Ordinary Share Capital Rs. 78,642,860/= from the previous Share Premium Account transferred to Stated Capital and Rs. 61,814,200/= on account of Non Cumulative Non Participating Redeemable Preference Share Capital)The company further agreed that the issue of shares under share swap is subject to the Exchange approving in principle the issue and listing of shares and obtaining shareholders approval at an EGM.

LANKA WALLTILE PLC – CONSOLIDATION AND SUB DIVISION OF SHARES

Company:- LWLDate of EGM: 29-OCT-2008 Consolidation and Sub-Division Based on Shareholding as at end of trading: 29-OCT-2008 Period of Dealing Suspension(both days inclusive): 30-OCT-2008 to 19-Nov-2008 Date of Commencement of trading: 20-NOV-2008 Subject to Shareholder Approval at a General Meeting.

All Share Index closed 11.14 points lower at 2239.18 & Milanka Price Index closed the day 14.49 points lower at 2512.73.

Turnover for the day was LKR 86.6 Million.

Foreign purchases were LKR 9.7 Million while foreign sales was LKR 10.5 Million.

JKH was the main contributor with 337400 shares traded.
Dialog Telekom & Srilanka Telecom down by 25 cents each.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

DIVIDEND ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE METROPOLITAN RESOURCE HOLDINGS LTD (MPRH)

The Board on reasonable grounds believed that the company would satisfy the Solvency Test immediately after the distribution of dividends. However, the company’s auditors have expressed a difference in opinion and due to a provision made by them in the company’s accounts they have declared that the company would not meet the Solvency Requirement after the payment of the dividends as proposed by the Directors.
Therefore, there would not be any distribution of the dividends by the company as previously announced.

SAMPATH BANK PLC – PRIVATE PLACEMENT

The Board of Sampath Bank PLC wishes to inform the public that the International Finance Corporation (IFC) has now informed that it will require further time to finalize its decision to participate in the equity of the bank and hence it will not participate in the Private Placement or Rights Issue within the time frames as announced earlier. However the IFC will continue to have close relations with the Bank and provide technical know how to the bank.
Accordingly the Private Placement announced previously will not take place.

SAMPATH BANK PLC – RIGHTS ISSUE

Company ID :- SAMP
Proportion:- 01 (One) for 04 (Four)
Issue Price:- Rs.100.00
EGM & Provisional Allotment:- 29. Oct. 2008
Date EX :- 30. Oct .2008
Dispatch of Provisional Letter of Allotment:- 05. Nov. 2008
Trading Commences on :- 11. Nov. 2008
Splitting: – 20. Nov. 2008
Renunciation: – 25. Nov. 2008
Quantity Offered:- 17,221,907
Remarks: – Books Open

BAIRAHA FARMS PLC – DIVIDEND

Company ID:- BFL
Date of Announcement:- 22 .Sep. 2008.
Rate of Dividend:- Rs.1.00 Per Share – Final Dividend
Financial Year:- 2007/2008
AGM:- 22. Oct. 2008
XD:- 23. Oct. 2008
Payment:- 30. Oct. 2008
Share Transfer Book Open

SERENDIB LAND LIMITED – Amended Dividend Payment Date

Company ID:- SLND
Rate of Dividend:- Rs.10.00 Per Share – First & Final Dividend
Financial Year:- 2007/2008
AGM:- 30. Sep. 2008
XD:- 02. Oct. 2008
Payment:- 02. Oct. 2008
Share Transfer Book Open

Mobile Telecom industry is no longer cash cow in Sri Lanka. All four existing operators are currently too busy with their internal cost cutting & offering cheap packages to customers. Some networks are offering free outgoing calls.

Due to this tariff war the listed mobile leader Dialog Telecom shares lost its value in last week by 13.95% and closed at LKR9.25.

The ultimate winner will be the consumer!

Market recovered from yesterday’s losses.
All share index went up by 28.35 points & closed at 2250.32 while milanka index up by 43.18 points & closed at 2527.22.

JKH closed LKR 85 up by 4 & Dialog Telecom closed unchanged at LKR 9.25.

My opinion is investors should buy fundamentally sound stocks to get benefit from future upward trend.

Economy is growing & oil prices are declining. So outlook is favorable for the market to pickup.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

VANIK INCORPORATION LTD
The company referred to the previous announcements made with regard to the Scheme of Arrangement with the Creditors of Vanik Incorporation Ltd and the meetings of the shareholders convened for today (18-09-2008).The company informed that the said EGM of the shareholders and the Separate Class Meeting of the Non Voting (Class X) shareholders were held on 18th September 2008 whereat the shareholders approved the resolutions set out in the respective Notices of Meetings.

19/09/2008 11h45

NEW YORK (AFP) – Global shares and the dollar leapt Friday as confidence returned with a drive to create a US debt clearance mechanism, more central bank support and a ban on betting on a crash.
However top Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley looked to be on the way to a forced marriage, and analysts differed over whether the global crisis is past the climax.
Official funds again flooded into the market with the European, British and Japanese central banks offering more cash, taking their total injections this week into the realms of 800 billion dollars.
The London stock market jumped 6.88 percent, Paris 5.40 percent, Frankfurt 3.87, Tokyo 3.76, Hong Kong 9.6 percent and Shanghai nearly 9.5 percent.
Russian shares roared up 15.5 percent after several trading suspensions.
The dollar surged in London, where the euro fell to 1.4197 dollars from 1.4348 here late Thursday.
And the timeless barometer of confidence, gold, signaled a fall in the fear level, dropping to 855.5 dollars an ounce in Hong Kong from 875.5 dollars Thursday.
US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson held out the prospect of a scheme to take over the mountains of bad debt that have weighed down banks, following Thursday’s central bank assault to relieve market distress and underpin confidence.
Paulson, speaking after he and US Federal reserve chairman Ben Bernanke met Congressional leaders, said: “We’re coming together to work for an expeditious solution.”
Officials are working to tackle “the heart of this problem, which is illiquid assets on financial institutions in the United States on their balance sheets,” he said.
“What we are working on now is an approach to deal with the systemic risk and the stresses in our capital markets.”
Paulson did not give details, stressing any plan would need Congressional approval, but US media reports said he was considering a bailout by taxpayers like that used in the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and ’90s.
In another step to instill market confidence, the US Securities and Exchange Commission and British regulators banned the short selling of shares to check abuses.
Short selling is borrowing shares in the hope they will fall, and selling for a profit, akin to self-fulfilling bets on a crash in times of extreme market distress.
The Financial Times said Morgan Stanley was making “frantic attempts” to find a partner and was discussing selling a stake to China Investment Corp. which could end up with 49.0 percent from 9.9 percent now.
The deaily said the bank preferred to sell a stake to CIC to a merger with US bank Wachovia Corporation.
However an unnamed CIC executive was quoted as saying in Beijing that taking a holding “could be very hard now as the purchase of a stake … could be subject to the US government foreign investment review.”

Opinions varied Friday on whether the official actions to stem the vortex threatening the global economy are enough.
“The creation of a huge government-sponsored vehicle to take on so-called toxic investments in the US, short selling restrictions … are all having a positive effect,” said CMC Markets dealer Matt Buckland.
“The combined efforts are so great that there seems to be a coherent belief that this could actually be sufficient to draw a line under what has been a tumultuous 18 months for the markets.”
John Kyriakopoulos, a strategist at National Australia Bank Capital, said: “Such a (debt) plan would potentially provide a long-term solution to the credit crisis.”
But he commented that official actions so far “merely stopped the bank funding crisis from getting even worse, rather than reversed it.”
Seiichi Suzuki, market analyst at Tokai Tokyo Securities, said: “The rally is a combination of a knee-jerk reaction to the reports of the new rescue plan and a mere tracking of movement on Wall Street.”
Hong-Kong based equity strategist Christopher Wood of CLSA brokers said in his newsletter: “It is extremely important that the US authorities allow firms to fail and do not bail everyone out.”

He said: “If the US authorities continue to indulge in bailouts, they risk not only further fanning moral hazard but also contaminating the credit and good standing of America.”
The crisis is an issue in the US presidential election, and polls Friday indicated that Democrat candidate Barack Obama has taken back a lead from Republican John McCain.
The latest vicious chapter of the 14-month-old US subprime home-loan crisis began at the weekend with the collapse of US investment banking giant Lehman Brothers.
That was followed by the 85-billion-dollar nationalisation of insurance titan AIG, a wave of other distress signals and the rescue of British bank HBOS Thursday.
The crisis has also savaged other big Wall Street names such as Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch.

This downward trend is not related to recent international markets crash. The only reason is massive price declines in few blue chip stocks. I am repeatedly saying this but you may not understand so I am going to explain it.

The Market Capitalization of blue chip companies (As a % total Market Cap.)

SRI LANKA TELECOM PLC – 10.36%
DIALOG TELEKOM PLC – 10.30%
JOHN KEELLS HOLDINGS PLC – 7.04%

So above three companies represent more than 1/4th of the total market capitalization. This is the reason for big fluctuation in market indices if any price change (even 25 cents) in one of above company.

Today the all Share Index closed 58.28 points lower at 2221.97 & Milanka Price Index closed the day 97.69 points lower at 2484.04.
Turnover for the day was LKR 237.9 Million.

Dialog Telecom closed LKR 9.50 (-1.00)
Sri Lanka Telecom closed LKR 41.75 (-1.25)
John Keels Holdings closed LKR 81 (-2.25)
Distilleries closed LKR 71.25(-1.50)

ANNOUNCEMENTS

ANNOUNCEMENT ON LANKA MARINE SERVICES PRIVATE LIMITED (LMS), A SUBSIDIARY OF JOHN KEELLS HOLDINGS PLC (JKH) AND SUMMATISATION OF FINANCIAL IMPACTS

JKH wishes to announce that LMS has now received the formal assessments with regard to the taxes payable as a result of the judgment delivered by the Supreme Court of the Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka on 21 July 2008.The assessments include penalties of Rs. 375 million, which LMS believes are not applicable in terms of the IRD Act, based on opinions from independent legal counsel and tax consultants. LMS will pursue the appeal as per the process set out in the IRD Act.

KURUWITA TEXTILE MILLS PLC – DIVIDEND

Company ID:- KURUDate of Announcement:- 18 .Sep. 2008.Rate of Dividend:- Rs.1.00 Per Share – Final DividendFinancial Year:- 2007/2008AGM:- 16. Oct. 2008XD:- 17. Oct. 2008Payment:- 23. Oct. 2008Share Transfer Book Open

VANIK INCORPORATION LTD

The company referred to the previous announcements with regard to the Scheme of Arrangement with the Creditors of Vanik Incorporation Ltd.An EGM of the shareholders and a Separate Class Meeting of the Non Voting (Class X) shareholders will be held on 18th September 2008 at the Committee Room B of the BMICH on conclusion of the AGM to be held at 10:00 a.m. on the same day and place, inter alia, to obtain the approval of the shareholders for the reduction of the Stated Capital of the Company and the issue of new ordinary shares to the Scheme Creditors in pursuance of the Scheme of Arrangement.

THE COLOMBO FORT LAND & BUILDING CO. LTD

The company informed the following in connection with the publication which appeared in the press on 17th September 2008.”The leisure industry is one of our principal activities and we are constantly endeavoring to expand our interest in this area. With the current government policy of permitting local companies to invest abroad we are certainly interested in expanding our interests in the leisure industry to South India if suitable opportunity presents itself.We have no firm commitments in respect of this matter which merit disclosure. The matters referred to in the article are merely in the planning stage and unless suitable partners are identified and the funding is assured the company will not embark on any such project.”

Information Colombo Stock Exchange