LMD 50 to be unveiled today

Lanka IOC, SLT, ComBank and JKH take top billing in 2008/09:

Media Services, the publisher of the pioneering business magazine LMD has unveiled the `who's who' of corporate Sri Lanka in its annual edition THE LMD 50. The special edition will be launched today in book stores and newsstands.

And for only the second time since THE LMD 50 was launched 16 years ago, a foreign corporation heads the premier rankings of listed companies in Sri Lanka. Lanka Indian Oil Corporation, (Lanka IOC), tops the list for the second year in a row which ranks the nation's quoted companies primarily on the basis of turnover. Lanka IOC is followed by Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) in second place and Commercial Bank at No. 3.

The Leaderboard, or the `Top 10', this year also comprises three highly diversified conglomerates - John Keells Holdings (JKH) which took fourth spot, Hayleys in eighth place and Aitken Spence at No. 9. Two banks - Combank and Hatton National Bank (HNB), which is placed fifth - are followed by SLT and Dialog Telekom at No. 7.

The special edition notes that "whilst inflation hovered at around 15 percent on average in 2008/09, THE LMD 50's collective income appreciated by less than 10 percent, from Rs. 770 billion in the financial year 2007/08 to Rs. 842 billion".

"But the spearheads continue to pump the top 50's engine to a point of domination: in 2007/08, the Leaderboard's aggregate turnover represented 45 percent of the field (up two percentage points from the year before), and nothing has changed since then." it said.

THE LMD 50 notes that ``SLT and JKH have dominated the rankings over the years, with the former being the first to the finish line in four straight years since it was partially privatised in 2003/04 and the latter occupying pole position in eight of the 10 preceding years."