Sri Lanka’s leading tyre manufacturer, CEAT Kelani Holdings (CKH), has retained its National Long-Term Rating of ‘AA+(lka)’ with a ‘Stable Outlook’ from Fitch Ratings for the sixth consecutive year, underscoring the company’s continued financial resilience and established position in Sri Lanka’s pneumatic tyre manufacturing industry.
The ‘AA+(lka)’ rating is the second-highest level on Fitch’s national rating scale and indicates a very strong capacity to meet financial commitments. In reaffirming the rating, Fitch highlighted CKH’s established leadership in the domestic pneumatic tyre sector and resilient financial profile as key strengths, while also noting the company’s exposure to price-sensitive, cyclical and highly competitive end-markets.
The Stable Outlook reflects Fitch’s expectation that CKH will continue to maintain its market position despite rising input costs and increasing competition from imported tyres. The rating agency also expects the company to maintain adequate credit metrics through periods of weaker earnings and higher investment requirements.
Commenting on the latest rating, CEAT Kelani Holdings Chairman Chanaka De Silva said the continued rating reflects confidence in the company’s ability to make sound decisions while maintaining the financial strength required to pursue its long-term ambitions.
“A credit rating is ultimately a measure of confidence in an organisation’s ability to make sound decisions today while remaining financially equipped to pursue its ambitions for tomorrow. For CEAT Kelani, maintaining this rating through successive cycles reinforces the importance we place on disciplined stewardship, operational adaptability and investment in the long-term strength of the business. We remain focused on building a stronger, more competitive and increasingly capable manufacturing enterprise that can create sustainable value for all our stakeholders,” he said.
Entrepreneurship Experts Call on Accountants to Shift from Precision to Business Leadership
Entrepreneurship requires chartered accountants and company secretaries to move beyond simply interpreting financial statements and play a more active role in shaping business decisions, according to Professor Dean – Strategic Initiatives at Delhi Metropolitan Education, Dr. Poorva Ranjan.
Delivering the opening keynote at the AAT Sri Lanka Conference 2026, held recently in Battaramulla, Dr. Ranjan emphasised the need for financial professionals to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and use their expertise to identify opportunities beyond conventional financial analysis.
“When you go through financial statements, you are reading a balance sheet containing numbers of somebody else’s dreams,” she said.
She explained that entrepreneurship fundamentally involves identifying gaps and opportunities that others may have overlooked. “Insight comes when you understand beyond the world of numbers and connect it to the external world. Creativity comes when you read between the lines to discover what is missing and build something even the business owner hasn’t discovered yet,” she said.
Dr. Ranjan described the ability to conduct effective gap analysis as a valuable entrepreneurial skill, noting that financial professionals are well positioned to identify opportunities by combining financial knowledge with a broader understanding of business operations and market dynamics.
Addressing concerns surrounding increasing automation, Dr. Ranjan dismissed fears that artificial intelligence (AI) would make financial professionals obsolete. While analytical functions can increasingly be automated, she noted that AI cannot fully understand local cultural nuances, operational constraints or human vision.
CEAT Kelani Maintains Fitch AA+ Rating for Sixth Consecutive Year
