Category: Daily Financial Times

At Taj Samudra, Colombo the celebration is steeped in tradition, joy, and culinary artistry-where every sweet becomes a symbol of love, light, and togetherness.

From 1 October, the hotel’s master chefs unveil a specially curated collection of authentic Diwali sweets, blending age-old recipes with timeless elegance. Guests are invited to indulge in a selection that captures the very essence of the season-from the golden crunch of laddoos to the soft, fragrant melt of barfis and the intricate richness of handcrafted mithai. Beautifully presented, the sweets are made for thoughtful gifts, festive table centrepieces, or personal indulgences during the Diwali season. Every bite of our handcrafted sweets is designed to bring people closer and to capture the warmth and richness of the celebration.

Whether shared with family, gifted to friends, or enjoyed in peaceful solitude, these traditional delights are bound to light up any moment.

Union Assurance has once again secured a coveted position in the 100 Most Valuable Brands 2025 ranking published by Brand Finance. The company retains its place within the exclusive Top 50 Valuable Brands, a reflection of its strong brand impact, strength and forecasted brand value creation. This recognition reaffirms Union Assurance’s consistent performance and leadership by remaining relevant and resilient in a dynamic business environment.

Driven by a brand vision of empowering progress for all, Union Assurance offers a comprehensive suite of protection solutions tailored to meet the evolving needs of its customers. The company continues to lead the way in digital transformation, introducing multiple industry-first innovations that have redefined the Life Insurance experience in Sri Lanka. In addition, Union Assurance has made forward-looking investments to simplify Life Insurance and enhance accessibility by expanding its presence across omni-platforms that are seamlessly integrated into the everyday lives of Sri Lankans.

Aligned with its brand vision, the company has also launched its flagship CSR program, Suwamaga dedicated to reducing the rising incidence of diabetes in Sri Lanka. Anchored on four strategic pillars-raising awareness, promoting healthy lifestyles, supporting early detection and risk management, and fostering community engagement, the program delivers a holistic approach to diabetes prevention and control nationwide. The program has since positively impacted over 22,000 individuals across Sri Lanka between September 2024 and August 2025 with free testing services provided to the public for completely free of charge across all corners of the island.

Chief Executive Officer Senath Jayatilake stated, ‘We are proud and humbled by this ranking. This recognition highlights the enduring trust and confidence that our customers and stakeholders place in Union Assurance. It is also a demonstration of the hard work and dedication of our entire team in ensuring that we consistently exceed expectations and deliver best-in-class value.’

Chief Marketing Officer Mahen Gunarathna said, ‘This recognition is a powerful endorsement of our brand’s relevance and resonance in the hearts of Sri Lankans. At Union Assurance, we are deeply committed to building a brand that not only delivers protection but also empowers progress of all. Through strategic marketing, customer-centric innovation, and purpose-led initiatives like Suwamaga, we continue to strengthen our connection with communities and drive meaningful impact across the nation.’

Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts Colombo Area Vice President and Cinnamon Grand Colombo, Sri Lanka General Manager Kamal Munasinghe, ended his tenure, to take up duties as Chief Operating Officer, Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts, where he will head operations across the brand’s 17 resorts and hotels in Sri Lanka and the Maldives. His focus will be on transforming Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts into a brand defined by precision in operations, authenticity in service, and innovation in guest journeys.

During his time at the Cinnamon Grand, a period of four and a half years, Munasinghe literally not just transformed the Hotel into a bustling, lively and above all friendly and warm venue, he imbued his inborn talent for PR and geniality, across the board to both staff and guests. Activities, events, a sense of wellbeing, all combined to make the Cinnamon Grand the ‘Go To’ venue be it business or pleasure. A seasoned hotelier and industry leader, Munasinghe who returned to Sri Lanka, post his role as General Manager of Alila Bangsar Kuala Lumpur, a Hyatt Hotels Corporation property, has indeed stamped his mark indelibly at the Cinnamon Grand.

His career spans across Switzerland, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka, and he is a hospitality graduate of Schiller International University, Switzerland.

Munasinghe’s vision is to showcase the essence of Sri Lankan hospitality, cuisine and culture to the world, via the Cinnamon brand, establishing John Keels as the country’s premier hospitality conglomerate.

His most outstanding feature which has, and always will stand him in good stead and enable him to stand out from the crowd, is his humanity and his willingness to listen to others, to adapt, and handle and act on criticism. Qualities which are scare in today’s fast paced and competitive environment. His PR is legendary and will be a hard act to follow, especially due to the fact that in Munasinghe’s case it’s inborn and not acquired. His care and concern was not only manifest towards the Hotel’s guests but to the staff as well, as was evidenced by the bustle and activity and sheer willingness of staff across the board to maintain the high standards set by him. A level of performance that can only be achieved when the Head of the organisation focuses on both guests as well as staff.

He successfully enhanced Sri Lanka’s Premier Hospitality Brands Cinnamon Grand Colombo, Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo, and Cinnamon Red Colombo, offering diverse dining, hospitality, and entertainment experiences. Munasinghe indeed walked his talk, ‘Luxury is all about personalisation.’

Munasinghe believes Sri Lanka has the potential to become the world’s most sustainable and sought after tourism destination, emphasising wellness, well-being, and mindfulness. A prominent figure in the hospitality sector, he has received notable accolades for his exceptional leadership and contributions which include Hospitality Sector Business Leader of the Year 2022 – Awarded by the CEO Magazine Awards. This recognition highlights his excellence in business strategy and leadership within the hospitality industry, while his recognition as the Best General Manager for Southwest Asia 2023 – at the World Luxury Awards, reflects his outstanding performance and management skills in one of the most competitive regions for luxury hospitality.

During his tenure, the Cinnamon Grand won many accolades including, Best 5-Star Hotel in Colombo City, Best Authentic Sri Lankan Cuisine awarded to the Nuga Gama restaurant at the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority awards 2024, while at the Culinary Art Food Expo (CAFE) 2023, the Hotel was awarded the Most Outstanding Overall Hotel Championship Trophy, the Most Outstanding Overall Hotel Culinary Team, as well as being recognised as the Most Outstanding Colombo City Hotel Culinary Team. In 2025, at the Culinary Art Food Expo (CAFE) 2025, Cinnamon Lakeside was awarded Best Culinary Team overall winner.

Empathy, inborn PR and consummate professionalism, combine to make Munasinghe, ‘Simply the Best.’

The sustainability leadership of the Commercial Bank of Ceylon was brought into focus on the global stage when Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC Deputy General Manager – Corporate Banking Hasrath Munasinghe shared insights at United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) annual sessions held in conjunction with United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) annual sessions in New York. The forum was attended by over 500 delegates from 69 countries across the world.

Munasinghe who also serves as a trustee of the bank’s CSR Trust, is a member of the executive sustainability committee of the bank and a board director of the UNGC network in Sri Lanka spoke on Sri Lanka’s sustainability landscape at the Asia and Oceania Leadership Round Table where representatives from 14 countries presented.

In his comments, Munasinghe highlighted the Asia Pacific region as a biodiversity hotspot with a vital role in advancing global sustainability. He stressed that the region’s rich resources, including its human capital, create significant opportunities for investments in social enterprise, sustainability related bonds, climate transition, biodiversity, AI based technology projects and diversity and gender-focused projects. Reflecting this vision, Commercial Bank has embedded sustainability into its core operations and emerged as a leader in the sector, setting benchmarks through responsible banking practices and pioneering initiatives that align growth with environmental and social priorities, he said. He also spoke of special financing opportunities such as climate financing for energy transition and inclusive gender smart finance.

After these sessions, the UNGC Sri Lanka Network in a media release said it was delighted to see Munasinghe bring Sri Lanka’s voice to the Asia and Oceania Leadership Roundtable – Strategy, Policy and Impact, at the United Nations Global Compact Hub in New York. The UNGC said, ‘This high-level dialogue brought together trailblazing CEOs and CSOs from across the region to redefine the future of sustainable leadership. The conversations were candid, thought-provoking, and action-oriented, highlighting the powerful shift from compliance to co-creation, where sustainability is no longer a box-ticking exercise but a core driver of strategy and growth. With innovation and collaboration driving solutions across diverse markets, one message resonated strongly: Asia and Oceania are not just responding to global sustainability trends, they are shaping them.’

Munasinghe also participated in the UN’s SDG Moment Forum at the UN Headquarters, presided by the UN Secretary General António Guterres, where Queen Mathilde of Belgium, Prime Minister of Ireland Micheál Martin and several world leaders made speeches.

During the week-long UN sessions, Munasinghe also met with several high-ranking representatives of the United Nations and UN-affiliated agencies, strengthening the bank’s links with the global sustainability agenda. These included UNGC Assistant Secretary General and CEO Sanda Ojiambo and UN’s Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) CEO David Atkin.

The upward momentum in secondary Bond markets continued yesterday with rates rising for a third straight session. Activity and transaction volumes were seen at healthy levels during the earlier trading hours but fizzled out to a virtual standstill during the later trading hours.

The 15.09.27 maturity was seen trading at the rate of 8.85%. The 15.10.28 and 15.12.28 maturities were seen changing hands at levels of 9.23%-9.25%. The 15.06.29, 15.09.29 and 15.12.29 maturities were seen trading at highs of 9.60%, 9.65% and 9.68% respectively. The 15.05.30 and 01.07.30 maturities were seen changing hands at the rates of 9.75% and 9.76% respectively while the 15.12.32 maturity at the rate of 10.55%. The 01.11.33 maturity traded within the range of 10.75%-10.74%. The 15.09.34 maturity traded down the range of 10.82%-10.80%.

The total secondary market Treasury Bond/Bill transacted volume for 1 October was Rs. 23.17 billion.

In money market, the weighted average rates on overnight call money and Repo stood at 7.87% and 7.88% respectively.

The net liquidity surplus was recorded at Rs. 172.16 billion yesterday. An amount of Rs. 21.00 billion was withdrawn from the Central Bank’s SLFR (Standing Lending Facility Rate) of 8.25%, while an amount of Rs. 193.16 billion was deposited at Central Bank’s SDFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 7.25%.

Forex Market

In the Forex market, the USD/LKR rate on spot contracts closed the day steady at Rs. 302.46/302.52 as against Rs. 302.47/302.53 the previous day.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 1 October was $ 142.00 million.

AI is reshaping business at a furious pace. But with the rush to deploy agents across every platform and vendor, companies are facing a new kind of digital disorder: agent sprawl. The very tools designed to deliver efficiency are now spawning duplication, compliance gaps, and security blind spots.

Salesforce’s answer is MuleSoft Agent Fabric, a platform it calls the backbone of the Agentic Enterprise. Think of it as an air traffic controller for a company’s AI workforce: a single hub to register, orchestrate, govern, and monitor every agent, no matter where it was built.

The stakes are high. Analyst forecasts show a 327% surge in agent adoption within two years, with nearly half of enterprise applications embedding agents by next year. Without coordination, these agents risk becoming a fragmented mess, valuable in isolation but blind to the broader enterprise.

Salesforce, MuleSoft SVP and GM Andrew Comstock said, ‘The reality is, most enterprises live in a multi-vendor world, and that won’t change with AI. Just as companies rely on countless applications across different ecosystems, they’ll soon have AI agents from every SaaS provider and every major LLM. The strategic challenge isn’t building a single agent, but enabling all of them to work together. MuleSoft Agent Fabric gives every organisation the ability to govern and orchestrate all their agents in a cohesive and trusted way.’

Customers like Barco, r.Potential, Rush University System for Health, and Wynn and Encore Las Vegas are already adopting the platform to bring order to their sprawling agent ecosystems. For them, the appeal isn’t just coordination – it’s compliance and control.

MuleSoft Agent Fabric rolls out with four core pillars: Registry: a catalog making agents discoverable and reusable; Broker: an intelligent router, powered by large language models, for cross-domain task execution; Governance: guardrails for security and regulatory compliance at every interaction and Visualiser: a live map of agent activity to trace decisions and performance.

This is more than Salesforce extending its Agentforce suite. It’s a bid to own the connective tissue of the AI economy. And with its track record in linking data, APIs, and processes, MuleSoft is betting it can do the same for AI agents.

The Mastercard 5 Club Premier Challenge 2025 is set to take place on 4 and 5 October at the Royal Colombo Golf Club, promising yet another exciting chapter in this much-anticipated golfing event.

Known for its competitive yet friendly spirit, the tournament continues to draw wide participation from the country’s golfing community.

The opening day will feature a shotgun start at 7:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., ensuring that the large field of participants can enjoy smooth play across the historic fairways of RCGC. With more than 270 golfers already registered, the atmosphere is expected to be vibrant and full of energy.

The final day will tee off at 7:00 a.m., where participants will vie for top honours and test their skills under pressure. The layout of the RCGC, with its challenging greens and strategic hazards, will demand both precision and consistency.

As always, the event is more than just competition it is a celebration of camaraderie and golfing excellence. The Mastercard 5 Club Premier Challenge 2025 stands as a highlight in the local golfing calendar, bringing together seasoned players and rising talents for two memorable days on the course.

Dijital Team recently marked a new milestone with the opening of its second office in Sri Lanka, located in Kandy.

Situated within the Odel Mall, Kandy, the new office’s launch coincides with tremendous growth in the business. This latest location is an opportunity to support Dijital Team’s ongoing business growth and create job opportunities for tech and IT professionals while advancing regional economic growth.

In establishing a new office in Kandy, Dijital Team aims to increase employment opportunities for IT professionals in the Central Province. Additionally, through its newest branch, Dijital Team offers team members the opportunity to work without leaving their hometown. The recent expansion of the group’s operations also renewed the group’s long-term commitment to upscaling Sri Lanka’s technology sector.

Dijital Team Managing Director Peter Ward said: ‘It is our vision to create the best workplace in Sri Lanka, and our team members are our highest priority. Which is why it made sense to open an office in Kandy to support our remote-first workplace. We see the Kandy office as an opportunity to create a flexible working environment for those team members that prefer a hybrid workplace and to attract new IT talent and bring tech jobs closer to the Central Province through being part of the local community.’

General Manager Suran Fonseka said: ‘Our goal has always been to unlock the potential of all stakeholders in our business. Not only for global IT businesses, but also for skilled talent within the local industry too. Which is why our presence in Kandy means a great deal. We aim to be more than an employer in the region. Instead, we seek to be an economic and community partner in Kandy’s progress. The opening of this new office allows us to actively deepen regional IT talent development and economic wellbeing. Not just within the commercial capital, but across the island.’

Dijital Team has demonstrated its ability and skill as a talent solutions provider for global IT businesses seeking skilled experts. The company’s innovative approach to offshoring focuses on ensuring team members exercise a healthy work-life balance, which in turn leads to superior efficiency and amplified customer

satisfaction.

Telbedde Estate, managed by Balangoda Plantations PLC, has emerged as the Overall Gold Award Winner at the prestigious Ceylon Specialty Estate Tea of the Year 2025.

The award, presented by the Sri Lanka Tea Board in collaboration with the Colombo Tea Traders Association and Colombo Brokers’ Association, celebrates excellence in single-origin Ceylon teas. Telbedde Estate’s Orange Pekoe 1 (OP1) tea stood out from a competitive field, judged for its exceptional quality, unique character and consistency.

This victory reinforces Telbedde’s position as a leading producer of premium Ceylon single-estate teas, recognised globally for its craftsmanship and commitment to sustainable tea production. The winning lot was also featured in a charity auction at the Osaka expo, fetching an impressive ¥ 65,000 (Rs. 133,620) per kilo, which highlights its international appeal and the growing global appreciation for specialty teas from Sri Lanka.

Balangoda Plantations PLC CEO Dimuthu Wekunagoda said, ‘The prestigious recognition of Telbedde Estate’s premium teas stands as a true moment of pride for our company and our employees. This accolade is expected to further boost demand for Telbedde’s teas among discerning global buyers and inspire continued investment in quality-driven estate production across the region. Such recognition also helps to further elevate the reputation of Pure Ceylon Tea for the highest standards in excellence on the world stage.’

Balangoda Plantations PLC, under the stewardship of Melstacorp PLC and The Stassen Group, has continuously driven quality and innovation across its estates.

In an exclusive pre-publication release to the Daily FT, the publisher of leading business magazine LMD, Media Services, unveiled the top 20 line-up in the forthcoming LMD 100 annual edition.

Hayleys takes the top spot in the 32nd edition of Sri Lanka’s pioneering listed company rankings for financial year 2024/25. With a consolidated revenue exceeding Rs. 492 billion, the leading conglomerate secures top spot in Sri Lanka’s version of the Fortune 500 for the second consecutive year – it also helmed the rankings back in 2020/21.

Occupying second place on the podium with a top line of nearly Rs. 340 billion is LOLC Holdings while Carson Cumberbatch secures third place with a consolidated revenue of over Rs. 323 billion.

Commercial Bank of Ceylon (ComBank) leads the profitability rankings with a profit after tax exceeding Rs. 55 billion. It is followed by Browns Investments with profits surpassing Rs. 53 billion and Hatton National Bank (HNB), which recorded a bottom line of Rs. 44 billion to take the No. 3 spot among the most profitable listed companies in 2024/25.

A spokesperson for Media Services says the 100 strong rankings ‘underscore the continued dominance of Sri Lanka’s top conglomerates and banking sector among listed entities.’

In addition to the listed company rankings, the LMD 100 special edition will cover the national economy and performance of Sri Lanka’s leading listed companies in financial year 2024/25. It will also feature a series of interviews with a collection of the LMD 100’s high achievers.

Media Services says the LMD 100 special edition will be released in December.