Wednesday, April 27, 2011

From banks to shipping

Colombo Dockyard Plc (DOCK) yesterday informed the Colombo Stock Exchange that state- owned Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation, having acquired a 10 percent stake in the company, has expressed its intention to appoint a nominee director to DOCK’s director board.


As per the filing, SLIC’s General Fund owns 3,421,903 or 5 percent of DOCK, while Life Fund holds 3,421,475 shares or 4.999 percent of DOCK.

As per the December 31, 2010 interim reports, SLIC had the same shareholding in DOCK. However, it’s not clear as to why they have suddenly asked for a board seat. The filing also has not indicated any clear reason.

The matter of appointing government nominees to the director boards of publicly listed companies has now become a debatable issue.

According to certain analysts, the government is making inroads to these companies to control and influence the decision making process.

The most recent examples of this saga have been the appointment of Lakshman Hullugalle to the board of Commercial Bank and ex-Central Banker Ranee Jayamaha (as the Chairperson) to Hatton National Bank.

source - www.dailymirror.lk

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