News & market updates

Hemas Holdings (HHL) reported record FY2025/26 results with group earnings of Rs.8.92 bn (up 10.7% YoY) and revenue of Rs.127.4 bn (up 8%). The group has earmarked over $100m for investments over the next four years and expects an FY27 acquisition to raise international revenue to 10% from 3%.

Commercial Bank of Ceylon upgraded its Self-Onboarding Platform to enable instant, fully digital paperless savings account opening with real-time video identity verification and automated compliance screening, allowing new and overseas customers to onboard without branch visits.

HUTCH Sri Lanka planted about 500 native plants across half an acre at Rajawaka Forest Reserve in the third year of its rainforest restoration programme. The effort, run with Rainforest Protectors Sri Lanka and supported by employee volunteers, forms part of HUTCH/CK Hutchison's broader ESG and renewable-energy initiatives.

Sampath Karunaratne, Creative Director at MullenLowe Group Sri Lanka, was awarded the 2026 Next Generation Leader Scholarship to attend the Cannes Lions festival. This is the second consecutive year a MullenLowe Sri Lanka creative has received the scholarship.

SLT-MOBITEL PEOTV has been appointed the exclusive media and broadcast partner for the Lanka Premier League, offering live HD coverage across PEOTV, PEO MOBILE and digital platforms; the tournament starts 17 July 2026 with the player auction on 1 June 2026.

The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce delegation led by Chairman Krishan Balendra held high-level economic engagements in Mumbai on 13–14 May, culminating in the renewal of an MoU with the Indian Merchants' Chamber. Discussions targeted technology, manufacturing, healthcare, renewable energy and digital transformation to boost bilateral trade and investment.

Indian High Commissioner Santosh Jha commended the Indian CEO Forum at its 22 May 2026 AGM, which reaffirmed commitments to deepen India–Sri Lanka economic and commercial ties and urged upgrading the bilateral FTA to boost investment. The Forum represents 70+ members and said members contributed over $2 million during Cyclone Ditwah.

The Sri Lankan–German Business Forum 2026 will run 27–29 May in Colombo to promote FDI in maritime, ports and logistics and to showcase Sri Lankan IT startups. The conference, attended by the Prime Minister, will focus on port infrastructure financing, boosting exports to the EU and digitalisation.

LK Domain Registry has opened applications for BestWeb.LK 2026, inviting .lk website owners to submit entries by 8 June; the 16th edition will recognise sites across 24 categories and award 126 prizes, including special awards and feedback-driven improvement cycles.

Dialog Axiata PLC launched Dialog Air Fibre, Sri Lanka’s first 5G-powered ultra-fast Wi-Fi, now available for pre-order with a LKR 2,500 discount on the initial connection. The plug-and-play indoor device offers up to six hours battery backup, low latency and 104 TV channels via Dialog Play.

Samsung Electronics agreed to distribute KRW 40 trillion (~$26.6bn) in bonuses to its semiconductor division — an average of about $339,000 per employee, paid as 10.5% of profit in stock plus 1.5% cash; the deal could run 10 years and payouts occur early 2027 if the union approves.

Sri Lanka will develop an AI-powered National Cybersecurity Framework to detect AI-driven digital fraud in real time and unify fragmented security systems, Deputy Digital Economy Minister Eranga Weeraratne said; the move involves collaboration with Google Cloud and NCINGA on the 'Scam Shield' initiative.

Commercial Bank of Ceylon (COMB.N0000) signed an agreement to establish a fully-fledged branch at Port City Colombo offering full banking services including digital banking, trade, foreign currency and corporate solutions. The branch aims to support cross-border business and international investors in the Special Economic Zone.

Regenerative Agriculture Digital Resource Centres were handed over to the Tea Smallholdings Development Authority on 20 May to modernise Sri Lanka's smallholder tea sector through regenerative practices, digital learning and faster transfer of TRI research. Funded by Solidaridad and the Nucleus Foundation and based at Hanthana, the authority's head office and Walahanduwa, the centres will use digital tools and act as Training-of-Trainers hubs for smallholder capacity building.

Samsung Electronics retained its position as the world's No.1 gaming monitor brand for the seventh consecutive year, capturing an 18.9% revenue share of the global gaming monitor market in 2025. It also led the OLED gaming monitor segment with a 26% share and unveiled a new Odyssey lineup including a glasses-free 3D model and high-refresh-rate/6K displays.

Commercial Bank of Ceylon (COMB.N0000) will open a full-service branch in Port City Colombo offering digital banking, trade, foreign-currency, corporate and retail services to support cross-border transactions and international investors.

Sri Lanka has introduced mandatory Beneficial Ownership (BO) disclosure to strengthen corporate transparency. Deloitte says the reform's benefit depends on effective implementation and tech-enabled data integration, and warns heavy verification duties on directors and company secretaries may pose practical challenges.

Morocco’s Education Ministry and Huawei Morocco launched the third edition of DigiSchool to boost digital skills, training 300 new teachers (plus 60 alumni trainers) and engaging 12,500 students directly and 50,000 indirectly through 300 school clubs. The program focuses on programming, robotics, VR/AR and IoT with regional training, hackathons and a national Demo Day.

Sysco LABS hosted Tech Liga 2026, a futsal tournament with 14 teams representing 10 Sri Lankan technology companies; IFS A won the final on penalties (5-4) against LSEG B after a 1-1 draw.

US SaaS platform Review Craze has partnered with Sri Lankan tea and hospitality brand Tea Avenue to roll out its review-management and customer analytics platform across Tea Avenue outlets. Tea Avenue plans to expand to 40–45 outlets by end-2026 and will use the system for real-time feedback and sentiment analysis.

Commercial Bank of Ceylon has signed an agreement to open a fully‑fledged branch in Port City Colombo to offer full banking services—including digital banking, trade services, foreign currency transactions, corporate and retail products—to clients in the Special Economic Zone.

BAN Group upgraded its Boutique Marketing AI Ecosystem with new agentic AI capabilities, claiming the update can reduce creative development time and cost by more than 60%. The enhancement centers on MADAI, BAN’s proprietary platform for creative experimentation and advertising intelligence.

Jeff Hoffman (Staynex chairman, Priceline co-founder) urged smaller nations such as Sri Lanka to 'leapfrog' larger competitors by rapidly adopting AI, personalisation and other travel technologies to transform their tourism industries.

Fentons IT (FIT), with IceWarp, hosted an exclusive CIO networking evening 'The IceBreaker Moment' on 24 April at SHARK by Port City, attended by CIOs and IT decision-makers from over 40 organisations, mainly across the BFSI sector. The event aimed to foster open engagement and showcased IceWarp solutions through interactive activities and customer recognitions.

Sri Lanka has introduced mandatory Beneficial Ownership (BO) disclosure; Deloitte says successful outcomes depend on implementation—accurate verification, integration with digital ID, tax and banking systems, and capacity-building—drawing on international best practices.

The Cabinet approved plans to draft Sri Lanka’s first inbound labour migration policy to regulate recruitment and oversight of foreign skilled and semi-skilled workers; a Steering Committee will be appointed to prepare the draft framework to address sectoral labour shortages and centralise monitoring.

Dialog Axiata proposes a Long-Term Incentive Plan to issue up to 184,006,700 shares (2% of issued capital) to eligible employees, subject to shareholder and CSE approval. Grants will use the 30-day VWAP as reference price and individual awards are capped at 1%.

Salesforce launched Headless 360, exposing its platform as APIs, MCP tools and CLI commands and adding 60+ new MCP tools and 30+ preconfigured coding skills. The release also includes an experience layer for multi-surface interactions (Slack, Voice, WhatsApp) and governance tools for agents.

Jabra has launched its Evolve3 headset series, PanaCast U30 video bar and PanaCast Room Kits in Sri Lanka via sole authorised distributor ZILLIONe. The portfolio is available with a 2-year warranty and after-sales support, with the PanaCast U30 shipping this month.

CameraLK, Sri Lanka’s official Sony distributor, unveiled the Sony Alpha a7R VI and FE 100-400mm F4.5 GM OSS at a regional launch held in Sri Lanka, featuring hands-on demo zones and a visiting Sony delegation.