‘Invest Sri Lanka’ forum in S’pore in March

• Event to draw fund managers and investors based in city-state

Organisers expect higher interest following the landmark FTA signed with Singapore and record net foreign buying of shares of CSE-listed companies since 2017

Sri Lanka’s first investor forum for 2018 will be held in Singapore on 2 March with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe spearheading the quest to woo more investments from the city-state and fund managers on the back of a landmark Free Trade Agreement signed last month.

The one-day ‘Invest Sri Lanka’ forum will be held at the Four Seasons Hotel Singapore with Premier Wickremesinghe delivering the keynote address and an impressive lineup of speakers along with the participation of top Sri Lankan companies.

It is organised by the Colombo Stock Exchange, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Sri Singapore Lanka Business Association.

The listed Sri Lankan companies participating are JKH, Commercial, Dialog Axiata, HNB, Hemas, Sampath Bank, DFCC, NDB, Access Engineering, Tokyo Cement, Seylan, Lion Brewery, Softlogic, Sunshine Holdings and Walkers CML. The event is part of CSE’s overseas road shows which have triggered robust foreign portfolio investments to the Colombo stock market.

Yesterday the CSE announced that net foreign buying in January was Rs. 4 billion, a new record for the first month of any given year. January saw Rs. 10.7 billion in foreign purchases in the market, while foreign investors made sales worth Rs. 6.7 billion, which has established a record-breaking start to the year in terms of net foreign purchases.

The impressive start for 2018 comes on the back of record foreign buying of Rs. 112 billion in 2017 and net buying of Rs. 17.65 billion in the secondary market and a record total of Rs. 40.1 billion when inflow of Rs. 22.46 billion is factored in the primary market.

The previous highest total net foreign inflow was Rs. 21.7 billion in 2014. Last week the Wall Street Journal featured Colombo as the most attractive frontier market in comparison with 11 other countries, according to a model presented by Citi Bank.

Others speakers at the Singapore forum included Central Bank Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy, Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner in Singapore Nimal Weeraratne, CSE Chairman Ray Abeywardena, CEO Rajeeva Bandaranaike, SEC Director General Vajira Wijegunawardane, Aberdeen Standard Investments Managing Director Hugh Young, CGEC Port City Colombo Chief Sales and Marketing Officer Liang Thow Ming, Kuok (Singapore) Ltd. Chairman Kuok Khoon Ean, DBS Group Research MD and Chief Economist Taimur Baig, Softlogic Holdings Head of Investments Niloo Jayatilake and Singapore Sri Lanka Business Association President Angelo Perera.

The forum’s platinum sponsors are DBS Bank Singapore, Capital Alliance Ltd., Wilmar Holdings and B.P. de Silva Holdings, Singapore. The gold sponsors are CT CLSA, Acuity, Asia Securities and Ceylon Guardian and the bronze sponsor is Swellings Group. The promotional partners are the Sri Lanka High Commission in Singapore, the Singapore Business Federation, the Singapore International Chamber of Commerce, the Singapore Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the International Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka.