Investor Eye launches investment research service

Investor Eye Pvt. Ltd., a research house, yesterday launched its operations to provide independent investment research on companies listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange in English and Sinhala through email and post.

“This will change how corporate Sri Lanka looks at their social responsibility aspect,” Founder of Investment Eye Chamikara Gunawardane said.

His experience spans Australia where he worked heading outsourced equity research at Aegis Equities Research the largest independent equity research provider in Australia, for a limited period. His CV includes stints as a Research Analyst at Bartleet Mallory Stockbrokers, HNB Stockbrokers, Asia Securities and NDB Stockbrokers as a Senior Research Analyst and Head of Research.

Gunawardane said the dearth of research written in Sinhala and the need to provide an alternative to stock broker research would spur business. He pointed out that there was a lack of regular investment research and said most stock broker research was biased.

“Approximately 90-95% of research carried out is in English and investors feel stockbrokers don’t have time to talk to them,” Gunawardane said at the press conference. The company will also provide a risk rating for investing.

“Small investors tend to burn their fingers,” Gunawardane said, pointing out that some brokers only provide research to selected clients.

Research provided will include a fortnightly corporate report, weekly global economic and capital market review studying the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan and regional BRIC countries and frontier markets such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India, local economic and capital market review and valuation guide.

The first service will be available to subscribers for monthly fee of Rs. 1,000. The commissioned or fee-based research will be available to medium and large investors, including listed companies, foreign investors, HNIs, institutional investors, fund managers and stockbrokers wanting to receive customized corporate research reports. Individual and group consultations and education will be offered to existing and also to potential investors. All these

services will be available in both Sinhala and English languages, the company said in a media release.

The company’s code of ethics centres round providing professional research which is unbiased and confident which will not include inaccurate or misleading information.

The research house will allocate 20% of its revenue for social causes such as scholarships for deserving students, helping the elderly and contributing to disabled homes and orphanages and provide bi annual social progress reports on its activities.