Business
Nestlé Milo becomes first Ready-to-Drink beverage in Sri Lanka to switch to paper straws
Landmark move will eliminate 90 million plastic straws a year
Nestlé’s Milo brand announced that it has switched to paper straws for its popular Ready-to-Drink (RTD) variant. This makes it the first RTD beverage in Sri Lanka to offer consumers the more sustainable alternative of paper straws.
The landmark move will enable the company to eliminate 90 million plastic straws a year, and makes the all-new Milo packaging 100% recyclable. This initiative is one of the many actions Nestlé is taking to reduce the impact of its packaging.
In addition, a facility for recycling aseptic beverage cartons has been set up, supported by processing and packaging solutions company Tetra Pak and F&B industry leaders such as Nestlé. The plant will recycle Milo RTD and will benefit the entire aseptic beverage carton industry in Sri Lanka.
Nestlé will leverage its existing schools waste management program, which it conducts together with the Ministry of Education, Central Environmental Authority (CEA) and relevant Municipal Councils, to raise awareness about responsible disposal and collect used Milo RTD packs for recycling. It will reach 250 schools by end-2021. The company is developing more collection and recycling schemes for plastic packaging waste.
“Effective waste management is one of the biggest issues the country is facing now. I’m delighted to see Nestlé voluntarily pioneering the first paper straws for the category, and providing Sri Lankans more sustainable products to enjoy. We hope to see more companies supporting the government’s vision for a cleaner and greener Sri Lanka, to ensure the wellbeing of the country and its people” said Mahinda Amaraweera, Minister of Environment.
“Nestlé is committed to stepping up to the challenge of tackling plastic waste and accelerating our sustainability journey. This is the first of many major sustainability initiatives we have planned over the next few years. We plan to achieve plastic neutrality by 2022 and make the rest of our product packaging 100% recyclable by 2025. We’re proud to implement key actions that will have a positive impact on Sri Lanka’s future, and are committed to making products that are not only good for our consumers but also good for our planet”, said Fabrice Cavallin, Nestlé Lanka Managing Director.
To support the packaging change, the company will launch wide-scale consumer awareness campaigns to inspire behavioural change and promote responsible disposal.
“Milo has been committed to nourishing the ambitions of Sri Lankans for over 40 years. We’ve enhanced local farmers’ livelihoods by sourcing fresh milk, nurtured sports and talented athletes in the country, and are now proud to take bold initiatives in sustainability. We look forward to playing our part to protect our planet”, said Mohamed Ali, Category Marketing Manager for Milo at Nestlé Lanka.
The company’s other RTD products such as Nespray and Nescafé will also adopt the sustainably sourced paper straws and become 100% recyclable within the year.
If the price of oil hits $150 a barrel it will trigger a global recession, the boss of US financial giant BlackRock has told the BBC.
Larry Fink, who leads the world’s largest asset manager, said if Iran “remains a threat” and oil prices stay high it will have “profound implications” for the world economy.
In a wide-ranging exclusive interview, he also denied there was an AI bubble, although he said the new technology meant too many people were pursuing university degrees and not enough doing technical training.
BlackRock is a financial colossus, controlling assets worth $14 trillion (£10.5tn), and is one of the biggest investors in many of the world’s largest companies.
Its size and spread gives Fink – who is one of the eight co-founders of the business, which started in 1988 – a unique insight into the health of the global economy.
The conflict in the Middle East has triggered wild moves on financial markets as people try to assess what will happen to energy costs.
For Fink, it is too early to determine the ultimate scale and outcome of the conflict, but he believes it will be one of two extreme scenarios.
In one, if the conflict is settled and Iran becomes a country that can be accepted again by the international community then the price of oil could fall back to below where it stood before the war.
But if not, he says, then there could be “years of above $100, closer to $150 oil, which has profound implications in the economy” and an outcome of “a probably stark and steep recession”.
The surge in energy costs has led to some in the UK to argue that it should be focusing more on producing its own oil and gas.
On Tuesday, industry body Offshore Energies UK said that without more domestic production, the country risks becoming reliant on imports “at a time of rising global instability”.
Fink says countries need to be pragmatic about their energy mix by using all sources available to them, but providing cheap energy is key to driving growth and raising living standards.
“Rising energy prices is a very regressive tax. It affects the poor more than the wealthy.”
While the UK already has some solar and wind power and hydrocarbons, if oil prices were to rise to $150 for three or four years, “you would have so many countries moving so rapidly towards solar and maybe even wind”.
Countries should not depend on just one source, he says.
“Use what you have unquestionably, but also aggressively move towards alternative sources too.”
Some analysts have suggested that there are some echoes of the run-up to the 2007-08 financial crisis in the markets at the moment.
Energy prices are surging and some have flagged signs of cracks in the financial system. BlackRock itself is one of several firms to have limited withdrawals by nervous investors from private credit funds.
But Fink is adamant there is no chance of a repeat of the financial trauma seen in 2007-08, when several banks around the world collapsed or had to be rescued, as he believes financial institutions today are more secure.
“I don’t see any similarities at all,” he says. “Zero.”
The issues affecting some funds account for a small fraction of the overall market and investment from institutions remains strong, he says.
Fink also rejects suggestions that the surge in investment in AI, which has seen billions of dollars invested in the new technology, has been overblown.
“I do not believe we have a bubble at all,” he says.
“Could we have one or two failures in AI? Sure, that I’m fine with.”
Last year, BlackRock was part of a consortium that bought one of the world’s largest data centre providers, Aligned Data Centres, in a $40bn deal.
“I believe there’s a race for technology dominance. I believe that if we do not invest more, China wins. I believe it’s mandatory that we are aggressively building out our AI capabilities.”
The biggest issue he feels that is hindering the expansion of AI in the US and Europe is the cost of energy.
While China is investing hugely in solar and nuclear power, in Europe “I just see a lot of talk and no action”, he says, while in the US “as much as we are energy independent, we better start focusing on solar… because we need to have cheap, inexpensive power to move into AI”.
Earlier this week, in his annual letter to shareholders, Fink said the boom in artificial intelligence risked widening inequality, with only a small number of firms and investors seeing the benefits.
However, speaking to the BBC, he emphasised AI was going to create an “enormous amount of jobs”.
He said that in his letter he had written about how many jobs would be created “related to electricians and welders and plumbers”.
In contrast, there might not be as much demand for some office jobs as AI evolves and this could lead to a rethink about what roles are needed as “society is changing and evolving”.
“We really put judgement on so many jobs and so many people who probably should not have gone into banking or media or law, [who] probably should have been a great worker with their hands, and we need to now rebalance that approach,” he says.
In the US, he says, after World War Two “we built the foundation of education, and we said to all the young people, go to college, go to college, go to college. And we probably overdid it”.
“We need to balance that out, and we need to be proud that… a career can be just as strong in these fields of plumbing and electricians.”
(BBC)
Mahindra Ideal Finance Limited (MIFL) has announced the successful conclusion of its debut Rs 1 Billion debenture issue, which was oversubscribed on the first day of opening, marking a significant capital market milestone for one of Sri Lanka’s fastest-growing licensed Non-Banking Financial Institutions.
The Issue comprised up to Ten Million (10,000,000) Tier 2, Listed, Rated, Unsecured, Subordinated, Redeemable Debentures at a par value of LKR 100 per Debenture, raising up to Sri Lanka Rupees One Thousand Million (LKR 1,000,000,000), with a five-year tenure maturing in 2031.
Commenting on the outcome, MIFL Managing Director/CEO, Mufaddal Choonia said the proceeds of the Company’s inaugural debenture issue will be deployed to strengthen lending capacity across its core business segments, including vehicle leasing, gold loans, SME loans, and business loans.
“The success of our first debenture issue is testament of our performance so far and speaks of the confidence that investors have placed in our future growth story. The strong market response is also the best validation we can secure from the investor community on the strong fundamentals that underpin our business. We will honor that trust by deploying these funds to further provide accessible credit to enrich the lives of our customers and for the communities we serve.”
The capital raise also strengthens the Company’s Tier 2 capital base in compliance with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka’s Capital Adequacy Requirements.
The Debentures were offered in two structures — Type A, at a fixed rate of 12.00% per annum payable annually, and Type B, at a floating rate of the 364-Day Treasury Bill rate plus 3.50% per annum payable semi-annually.
The Issue carried a credit rating of A (lka) from Fitch Ratings Lanka Limited, with MIFL holding an entity rating of AA-(lka) with a Stable Outlook. The Issue was managed by NDB Investment Bank Limited, with Bank of Ceylon serving as Joint Placement Agent. (MIFL)
The Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka (SEC) and the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) jointly organized an awareness session recently, for auditors of companies which are currently on the CSE Watchlist. The session focused on enhancing awareness of enforcement actions and timelines, reducing prolonged Watchlist durations, and fostering a more coordinated regulatory approach among regulators, auditors, and listed companies.
Addressing the session, the Chairman of the SEC, Senior Prof. D.B.P.H. Dissabandara highlighted the core professional virtues of an auditor drawing from his own career beginnings, “At the heart of every auditor’s role lies three virtues: integrity, objectivity and confidentiality.” He reminded the gathering, that while an auditor may formally be recognized as a supplementary service provider under the SEC Act, their true value runs far deeper. Every time a listed company submits its financial statements, it is the auditor’s opinion that gives investors the confidence to trust those numbers. In that sense, auditors are not just ticking a regulatory box, they are the ones holding the line on transparency.
Senior Prof. D.B.P.H.
Dissabandara
Further, Professor Dissabandara drew attention to the current Watchlist situation, noting that while the inclusion of certain companies on the Watchlist is an appropriate regulatory measure, their prolonged presence on the Watchlist may send adverse signals to investors. He called for a structured connected approach involving auditors and listed company management to ensure incremental progress towards resolving Watchlist triggers, particularly those arising from going concern issues and the non-submission of financial statements.
The Head of Listed Entity Compliance at the CSE, Kassapa Weerasekara delivered a presentation focused on enforcement actions that can lead to securities being transferred to the watchlist. Weerasekara reminded the gathering “If companies take the right steps and obtain independent verification on the resolution of all matters giving rise to Modified Opinion and Emphasis of Matter on Going Concern, their securities can be fully reinstated.” He closed by emphasizing that the process is designed to give companies a fair and structured opportunity to correct course.
Russia launches 948 drones at Ukraine in largest attack over 24-hour period
Oil at $150 will trigger global recession, says boss of financial giant BlackRock
Showers will occur at several places in the Western and Sabaragamuwa provinces and in Galle and Matara districts after 2.00 pm
Senior citizens above 70 years to receive March allowances on Thursday (26)
CEB Engineers warn public to be prepared for power cuts after New Year
Japanese boost to Sri J’pura Hospital, an outright gift from Tokyo during JRJ rule
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
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