Capital Markets
From The Report: Sri Lanka 2017
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A post-war boom has been followed by a mixed few years for Sri Lanka’s capital markets, with a strong performance in 2014 followed by two slower years. The outlook is now brightening again as the Colombo Stock Exchange, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Sri Lankan government look to build the bourse’s role in the economy. The bourse’s composition is not particularly representative of the economy as a whole, with financial services companies strongly represented in index weightings, for example. Thus the bourse’s indices do not invariably track that of Sri Lanka’s macroeconomic performance as a whole. Yet in recent years there has been a growing understanding that they can play a leading role in economic development, particularly as the country looks to boost private sector growth and foreign investment.

This chapter contains an interview with Dilshan Wirasekara, CEO, First Capital.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Positive measures: Building a stronger, sophisticated and transparent marketplace
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A post-war boom has been followed by a mixed few years for Sri Lanka’s capital markets, with a strong performance in 2014 followed by two slower years. The outlook is now brightening again as the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Sri Lankan government look to build the bourse’s role in the economy. Capital markets have traditionally been modestly sized compared to the overall economy, with the CSE market capitalisation equivalent to approximately…

Interview

Current conditions: Dilshan Wirasekara, CEO, First Capital, on privatising assets and market conditions
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Interview: Dilshan Wirasekara Do you think the balance of payments deficit may necessitate privatisation of government assets? DILSHAN WIRASEKARA: I do not believe that the balance of payments crisis caused the decision to privatise some of the government’s assets. It is the high debt burden and the inability of those assets to service the debt that has resulted in the government privatising part of these assets. The government is looking at more public-private partnerships (PPPs) in terms of…

Analysis

New momentum: Global interest in sovereign bonds suggests growing investor confidence
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Strong demand for Sri Lankan sovereign bonds is broadening the government’s funding options, while indicating rising investor confidence in the country’s economic outlook and reform programme. Strong Demand Working with a range of international financial institutions, including Citigroup, HSBC and Deutsche Bank, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) successfully floated a $1.5bn, 10-year sovereign bond in May 2017, in the country’s 11th US dollar-denominated issuance in 10 years. The…