Laugfs to venture in to education

windi5 · 1 Laugfs to venture in to education Tue Jul 19, 2011 8:42 am

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Sri Lanka’s energy conglomerate, Laugfs Holdings will shortly venture in to the education sector, Mirror Business learns.

Speaking to Mirror Business Laugfs Holdings Chairman W.K.H. Wegapitiya said that the company is yet to launch its campus’ main office at World Trade Centre in Colombo. He said that it would be a new regional higher education centre, and the group will also look into other opportunities in the education sector.

Meanwhile, it is anticipated by market sources that Laugfs Holdings is in the lookout to buy a major stake in one of the premier international schools in Colombo.

The Chief Executive Officer of Laugfs Australia Higher Education Services (Pvt) Ltd, Vindhya Weeratunga declined to disclose information, though there is speculation that Laugfs is yet to buy an International School.

However she said that Laugfs is launching its regional educational campus on July 25, which is a partnership with an Australian Education Institute.

RockStock · 2 Re: Laugfs to venture in to education Tue Jul 19, 2011 8:46 am

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windi5 wrote:Sri Lanka’s energy conglomerate, Laugfs Holdings will shortly venture in to the education sector, Mirror Business learns.

Speaking to Mirror Business Laugfs Holdings Chairman W.K.H. Wegapitiya said that the company is yet to launch its campus’ main office at World Trade Centre in Colombo. He said that it would be a new regional higher education centre, and the group will also look into other opportunities in the education sector.

Meanwhile, it is anticipated by market sources that Laugfs Holdings is in the lookout to buy a major stake in one of the premier international schools in Colombo.

The Chief Executive Officer of Laugfs Australia Higher Education Services (Pvt) Ltd, Vindhya Weeratunga declined to disclose information, though there is speculation that Laugfs is yet to buy an International School.

However she said that Laugfs is launching its regional educational campus on July 25, which is a partnership with an Australian Education Institute.

Most probably it will not come under LGL but the Laughs holdings, which is the parent company of LGL. So LGL won't get any thing from this and chasing LGL because of this news won't do any good.

Hiru · 3 Re: Laugfs to venture in to education Tue Jul 19, 2011 8:47 am

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This is laugfs HOLDING and not the Laugfs GAS, so this can not have any direct impact on LGL share prices.

manula · 4 Re: Laugfs to venture in to education Tue Jul 19, 2011 9:42 am

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Same like Richard Pieries (RICH) ...Their are going to build a campus in the Nawinna.. Now all are gong to focus on Education sector ... many places to study ... Very Happy

UKboy · 5 Re: Laugfs to venture in to education Tue Jul 19, 2011 11:59 am

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RockStock wrote:Most probably it will not come under LGL but the Laughs holdings, which is the parent company of LGL. So LGL won't get any thing from this and chasing LGL because of this news won't do any good.

Good point Rockstock. many people mix up companies and their holding companies. Rolling Eyes

windi5 · 6 Re: Laugfs to venture in to education Tue Jul 19, 2011 12:38 pm

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There is an effect for there goodwill. Very Happy

RIO · 7 Re: Laugfs to venture in to education Tue Jul 19, 2011 1:56 pm

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Good to have a campus withing the group, thus Mr. Wegapitiya can enrolled as the first student on Business & Commerce section...& learn how to invest money at stocks...where he lost millions of rupees in the way of capital investments at GRAN & some other els (cant remember the other stock he invested at higher price)

Then at the same time he can be a lecturer at faculty of arts if the campus do have a section for arts....therefore student can learn from him, how to fool the people & how to act in emotional way ( I saw an article of him talking of manipulations heh heh heh ) & put the blame on others when incurring losses....

Jokers become emperors, till the fools are ready to accept them...! jocolor

windi5 · 8 Re: Laugfs to venture in to education Tue Jul 19, 2011 10:30 pm

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hmm, its great if he can have more exposure to the biz studies, as life span is not enough to finish learning. As far as i know, he started his biz in small way. If my memory is correct it was a gas conversion biz for petrol vehicles, first time in SL.Expanding the biz profile, Laugh gaz came in to the mkt. It must be a challenging task, that time shell gaz was holding the monopoly. competing with a multinational company is not an easy task, these companies do even unethical practices, behind the door to kill any competition which they c as a threat.

Mr. wagapitya won the Sri Lankan Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2006.,organized by the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCI). Stepping to international market, Laugfs 1st overseas conversion center opened at perth, Australia in 2007. Sunup super mkt chain is the first in SL which is operated 24/7. Now this holding company has diverse interests in
Petroleum,
Lubricants,
Real Estate,
Modern Trade,
Leisure,
Solid Tyres,
Emission Testing,
Value added Coir.,
Heavy engineering,
Boat building,
water bottling,
Restaurants.
Education
As Sri Lankans we have to proud of these few biz personnel, who is performing well even exploring in to the international mkt,forgetting minor faults. In the past we had only few holding companies,conglomerates. Now we have few, built by our own sons n daughters making mother land very proud. Mr.wegapitya is such a personality who stood on his own feet, bringing a medium size biz in to a holding company. There are few others, as i can remember.
1. Mr.Harry Jayawardena.
2.Lalith Kothalawela.
3.Dammika perera.
4.Mr.Ashoka Pathirage.
5.Miss. Otara.
6.Mr.Dilith Jayaweera.

Rajaraam · 9 Re: Laugfs to venture in to education Tue Jul 19, 2011 11:05 pm

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Rio, I cant agree with your statement. Mr .W is one of the very few successful Billioners in our country. As windi5 stated he has successfuly competed with 'Shell' one of the gas giant in the world to succeed. Now he has taken steps to expand his business further. May be some of his investment decisions are wrong. World class investors too sometimes take incorrect decisions specialy when it is connected with stock market.Even our DP has sold around 15% stake in Asian alliance about a year(or little more) ago at Rs. 50/- We know now Asia Capital is selling same company shares to Softlogic at 120/- If DP decided to hold his stake he could have earned a big profit. That is the nature of share trading business.

Chabbi · 10 Re: Laugfs to venture in to education Wed Jul 20, 2011 12:16 am

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RIO wrote:Good to have a campus withing the group, thus Mr. Wegapitiya can enrolled as the first student on Business & Commerce section...& learn how to invest money at stocks...where he lost millions of rupees in the way of capital investments at GRAN & some other els (cant remember the other stock he invested at higher price)

Then at the same time he can be a lecturer at faculty of arts if the campus do have a section for arts....therefore student can learn from him, how to fool the people & how to act in emotional way ( I saw an article of him talking of manipulations heh heh heh ) & put the blame on others when incurring losses....

Jokers become emperors, till the fools are ready to accept them...!

Everybody has made wrongs in past Razz

Including u / me & DP even Razz

But Mr. Waga is strong personality ... i also still wired y dd he dumped huge amt @ Gran @ that rate.. he may think that GRAN going to beat BFL Razz

But Mr. Waga is strong personality & LGL / Laughf Holdings is Strong companies in lk Smile

RIO · 11 Re: Laugfs to venture in to education Wed Jul 20, 2011 9:34 am

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@ Windi 5 & Rajaaram,.... Thanks for reply , But the facts you were pointing as merits are not considered as really valued Golds...! You both stated about Laugfs Gas introduction to the market when a global Giant Shel was at a monopoly in SL gas mkt as a challeng where Mr. W showed his brilliance is a total flop.... If not for the then Governments commitment of breaking away the Monopoly of shell & trying to ease the consumer burden...today there will not be any W or a LGL...!

GOSL did favoured the Laugf by the way of giving away the LP Gas produced by the CPC Oil refinery @ sapugaskanda at a considerable lower rate than the then Global Mkt price & even not allowing Shell to bid for the said out put by CPC...This made a man called Mr W & a company known as LAUGF...! if the GOSL did equal bidding process for LPG out put @ CPC then...where will be this Mr.W...?

My friends, never forget the past, that the way LGL became a house hold name in SL, but with the new rule of GOSL (CPC Gas offering - 80% to Litro & 20% to LGL) where is this Mr. W s miracles..? he is still begging for GOSL for higher quota from CPC...still no sucess (50%-50% just a offer letter issued only ..no action yet @ CPC)

Then shall we talk about Laugf Sun-ups...? as i have witnessed at many places, there are no much customers on those supermarkets compaired to Cagils & Keels during woring hours and overall daily customer visits were below than 25% compared to Car...& Keels...I wonder if these places make any true profits...?

So as TUBLA always says..I call the investments in GRAN as DUMB MONEY...!

windi5 · 12 Re: Laugfs to venture in to education Wed Jul 20, 2011 2:08 pm

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Its any govs responsibility to encourage and giving incentives to local businesses, if then gov helped Mr. Wegapitiya it might be on that basis. UNP gov also tried to introduce another gas company in 02,03, i think its munda. so with the full support of gov, they could do it, but they were just talking. If the then gov of sri lanka made laugh a house hold name,why muna failed, didnt it get any gov support?

Is there two prices for cpc gases?, one price for Litro and one for laugh. it was a business deal between two entities, now cpc is dealing with litro with the same rates. May be its cheap laugh to buying gases from local mkt rather than importing.If there was any any benefit arises out of that deal, laugh customers too benefited form that coz laugh gases have always been cheaper than other one.

I dont think any gov wants to c local business are dieing, these small,medium,big business are the back-born of any economy. As we give incentives for foreigners, we should look after our own sun and daughters.

laugh sunup is an innovative concept to sri lanka. in size they are smaller than other super mkts, but 24/7 service is excellent. Once my brother wanted to buy an inhaler for his mother in law, he told me he could buy it form laugh, so sunup was there for him even in mid night, so you can buy even important medicine after 12am as well.I dont know the actual figures of costumers for laugh but they might have some business otherwise would have been closed now, after inception in 2001.

Rajaraam · 13 Re: Laugfs to venture in to education Wed Jul 20, 2011 6:03 pm

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Rio, it is interesting to discuss this matter little further.You are saying that GOVT extended its support to LGL since "Shell" was at that time enjoying monopoly situation here in this trade. True. That is the GOVT policy. GOVT policy is to support the system to strenthen competition and discourage monopolies. In fact There is a separate division in Consumer Affairs Authourity for "competition promotion". That is mainly to ensure consumer benefit.

AS you correctly stated LGL was given a chance to buy entire gas produced by CPC in the past and that helped LGL to maintain a lower cost level compared to Shell. This was a big advantage for them to compete with a world class giant. In the same time when the price fixed for Gas ,Consumer Protection Authiority always fixed a lower price for LGL against Shell taking CPC low price advantage in to consideration and to pass a potion of that benefit to the consumer. We should not forgot as windi5 mentoined in his above post another good local investor who made big effort to set up a gas company was not materialised and subsecuently he abandoned his idea realising the huge challange he will have to face. Mr. W however continued with greatest dificulties and finaly managed to win a significant market share in this trade ensuaring company's ability to sustain.

As you mentioned may be now LITRO and LGL are sharing 80% and 20% respectively though CPC agreed to sell 50-50. How ever If you analyze the financial results of LGL a significant growth can be seen during the last financial year. I give some figures below for your reference;

Revenue 2011-Rs. 7,308mn, 2010-Rs. 5,592mn
Revenue growth - 31%

PBT 2011-Rs. 1,207mn, 2010-Rs. 583mn
PBT Growth - 107%

Profit 2011-Rs. 1,002mn, 2010-Rs. 528mn
Profit Growth - 90%
EPS 2011-Rs. 3.35,2010-Rs. 2.03
Dividend(interim) 2011-Rs. 1.50(paid)

Acccording to these figures LGL is performing well and CPC gas problem has not affected its revenue or profit. In fact financial reports reflect its strong growth and sustainbility. So without any doubt we can say that this is a good counter to deal with.