Though most of the public and the companies suffered severely during the country’s worst economic crisis, some entities in the stock exchange made their biggest profits during this time, said founding Chairman, Almas Holdings, Imtiaz Buhardeen.
“Well established companies together made a profit of around Rs. 670 billion in 2022 during the height of the economic crisis,” he said at the launch of ‘almasOne’ event hosted by Almas Equities (Pvt) Ltd at Galle Face Hotel.
He said these record profit-making companies include freight forwarding companies, exporters, and bankers. “This proves that there are opportunities even in the most difficult financial crisis.”
The fixed deposit interest rates which were around 17 to 18% have now come down to around 7 to 8%. He said today with interest rates coming down investing in the stock market is a very viable option as other investment opportunities are limited.
“However, we are still to see only a handful of companies involved in the stock market. These numbers have to increase,” he said, adding that some of the large tea exporting companies, ICT based companies are yet to enter the stock market.
Buhardeen said that the stock market should be a very good option for State-owned enterprises and banks but this is yet to take place. He said that today the country’s economic situation has vastly improved and a conducive environment has been created to do business.
He, however, said that due to Sri Lanka declaring a self-default in April last year many foreign investors are not investing. This situation will reverse as soon as debt restructuring is completed.
Almas Holdings, a diversified company, recently acquired Assetline Securities (Pvt) Ltd, and rebranded it as Almas Equities (Pvt) Ltd. It was done by Almas Capital (Pvt) Ltd a fully owned subsidiary of the group.
“This milestone marked the entry into the stock brokering industry on the Colombo Stock Exchange that leverages the Group’s expertise in financial markets and capacity to bring more participants to the market,” he said.
