New CSE boss upbeat about future, looks at Rs. 2 bn market soon

The Colombo Bourse is on a strong revival path and foreign inflows too are picking up, said the new Chairman of Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) Ray Abeywardena.

Speaking to Daily News Business, he said that this positive trend is being recorded after nearly two years. “Today, earning is very encouraging and we see this upward trend continuing.”

Abeywardena, who is also the Managing Director of Acuity Partners Ltd., said that indices are turning positive after two years of negative returns.

He attributed the negative trend in the past two years to election propaganda which not only put local, but also foreign, investors on a ‘wait-and-see’ footing. During the election campaigns, it was echoed that the Stock market was being manipulated and even that the Central Bank’s official figures were cooked. There was a lot of talk about ‘pump and dump’ and these created negative sentiments.

He however said that Sri Lanka’s market turnover is still nowhere near to that of a country like Vietnam which was far below the Sri Lankan economy a few years ago.

“While Sri Lanka’s annual turnover is around Rs. 910 million, Vietnam’s weekly turnovers are in excess of US$ 8 million and in Bangladesh it is US$ 100 million per year.”

“CSE is hoping to launch several new tools and products to attract new investors and I am looking at a Rs. 2 billion market in less than two years.”

He also said that though there was a lot of talk of some of the government companies being listed it is still to materialise.

GOH Hotel, Hyatt, SriLankan Catering, Lanka Hospitals and Waters Edge were down to be listed, but are yet to take shape.

“In addition, if some of the state banks even decide to list around 8% it would have a huge positive impact for the CSE.”

Looking back, one can see that government companies that were listed remained very competitive. He foresaw Sri Lanka Telecom, Lanka Milk Foods, and Distilleries Corporation to be very competitive after they were listed.

Abeywardena also said that their plan to woo Maldivian and other foreign investors to invest in Sri Lanka is gaining momentum.

He said that they will aggressively pursue hosting investment forums overseas. “We did have very good response from the previous CSE road shows in the USA, Australia and Dubai and this year too we will organise such events.”