Thursday, November 4, 2010

Al Mashal's Heraymila Investments to Start Fund in Sri Lanka to Tap Growth

Heraymila Investments Ltd., which manages Saudi Arabian entrepreneur Abdulaziz Al Mashal’s businesses, including private equity and real estate, will start a fund in Sri Lanka to benefit from the island’s growth.

Heraymila, based in Dubai, plans to raise at least 5 billion rupees ($45 million) for the fund that will invest in listed Sri Lankan companies. Faster economic growth with the end of Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war in May 2009 is boosting company earnings and encouraging investments.

The fund, structured as a unit trust, will start raising money from investors in the Middle East and Asia by the middle of 2011, Ravi Abeysuriya, chief executive officer of Heraymila’s stock broking unit in Sri Lanka, said in Colombo today. Heraymila, which manages $260 million in assets, will also set up a unit in Sri Lanka to channel private equity investment to the island, Abeysuriya said.

“The end of the civil war could add 2 percent to Sri Lanka’s growth each year,” said Shamubeel Eaqub, consultant economist for Heraymila Securities Ltd. “There are opportunities to invest in banks and construction firms. The consumer sector is a good long-term play given Sri Lanka’s burgeoning middle-class.”

The Colombo All-Share Index has doubled this year, making it the second-best performing index in the world behind the Mongolia Stock Exchange’s Top 20 index among benchmarks tracked by Bloomberg.

source - http://www.bloomberg.com

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