Friday, May 6, 2011

Sri Lanka Seylan unit to sell Union Place property

May 5, 2011 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's Seylan Development, a 50 percent owned unit of Seylan Bank is selling a land in Union Place as part of efforts to cut debt and improve profits, shareholders were told in the annual report.


The firm owns Seylan Towers in Galle Road which houses the Seylan Bank headquarters and some projects in Moratuwa and Ja-ela areas just outside Sri Lanka's capital.

"..[T]here is a property held, at Union place which the Management intends to dispose soon with a view to generating cash to reduce debt," chairman R Nadarajah told shareholders.

The firm had 800 million in borrowings.

The 42 square perch property at No 257 Union Place in the Colombo 02 area is carried in the books at 250 million rupees and has been last re-valued in December 2008.

The firm said it was focussing on property management instead of developing new properties in the near future.

Last year Seylan Developments had earned rents of 143 million rupees up from 139 million rupees and interest expenses of 84 million rupees down from 190 million rupees a year earlier.

Seylan Developments lost 27 million rupees in 2010, down from a profit of 94.7 million rupees in 2009. But in 2009 the firm showed 285 million rupees as fair value gains.

The company said it was also holding talks with tenants to increase rates.

source - http://www.lbo.lk/

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