LR Global Partners starts Sri Lankan unit on growth prospects after war

By Anusha Ondaatjie and Asantha Sirimanne | Bloomberg
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LR Global Partners, the New York- based money manager that specializes in developing markets, has set up an asset management unit in Sri Lanka to benefit from expanding economic growth after the end of the South Asian island’s 26-year civil war.

LR Global plans to put $20 million in an initial round of investments, Managing Partner Don Laguardia said in an interview in the capital Colombo.

“We are looking at Sri Lanka as a market that has a huge potential,” Laguardia said.

The benchmark Colombo All-Share Index has climbed 43 percent this year and is the best performer after Mongolia in the Asia-Pacific region. The island’s $41 billion economy is forecast by the central bank to grow 7 percent in 2010, the fastest pace in four years, amid increased public spending on roads, ports and power plants.

The New York-based company has opened Lanka Asset Management Co. in Colombo to channel overseas investments into private placements and private equity, local unit Managing Director Channa De Silva said.

“We are also keenly interested to promote a fair amount of initial public offerings in the medium to short term through investing in unlisted companies and eventually bringing them onto the stock market,” De Silva said today in a telephone interview.

Lanka Asset plans to sell shares on the Colombo Stock Exchange next year, Laguardia said.

Leopard Capital LP, which manages a Cambodia private-equity fund, said in January it’s seeking to raise $130 million for two funds that will invest on the island.

The government defeated the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in May 2009.

© Bloomberg