CSR · 9 min read
One Cyclone, Five Ways To Count It: This Year’s CSR Figures Do Not Compare
Cyclone Ditwah relief now appears in annual reports, and seven companies handle it five different ways. One company says its CSR figure includes relief but not how much. One excludes relief in a single sentence, one excludes it only in the accounts, one never prices it, and three never say whether it is in or out. Anyone comparing CSR spend this season needs to know which is which.
By the ESGNexus Editorial Team · October 2026 · Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
KEY TAKEAWAYS
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Cyclone Ditwah struck Sri Lanka in late November 2025. The World Bank estimated direct physical damage at US$4.1 billion, about 4% of GDP, before lost income or rebuilding costs. Companies gave cash to the Government’s Rebuilding Sri Lanka Fund, provided rations, medicines, and free services, and ran their own relief efforts. For December year-end companies, that giving fell into the 2025 annual report; for March year-end groups, into 2025/26.
ESGNexus examined seven of those reports. The relief is real in every case. The problem is how each report compares it with routine community spending, and the seven disagree.
One distinction runs through what follows. Relief here means money and goods given to people and institutions outside the company. Spending on a company’s own recovery, or on business the disaster created, is not relief, even when a report files it under disaster response. Only the first comes close to a CSR figure.
One Event, Five Treatments
The table sets out the five approaches. It records treatments, not amounts, because the reader’s question is what can and cannot be separated.
| Treatment | Company | What a reader can separate |
| Never stated in or out | Commercial Bank, HNB, Dialog | Nothing with certainty. Each report prints a Ditwah sum and a CSR or community total, but never says whether the first is included in the second. |
| Labelled, not measured | John Keells Holdings | Very little. The CSR figure is labelled as including disaster relief, with no amount, and the Fund contribution is larger than that figure. |
| Separated in the accounts | Sampath | The Fund donation, but only from the value-added statement, the Directors’ Report or the notes. The narrative pages never print the two numbers together. |
| Separated by the wording | Cargills | The Fund gift, from one sentence in the Directors’ Report. Priced relief goods probably sit inside the community figure, but the report does not say so. |
| Never priced | Hemas | Nothing. The relief is described but has no rupee value, so there is nothing to remove or add back. |
Source: ESGNexus reading of each company’s latest annual report. Commercial Bank, HNB, Dialog Axiata and Sampath Bank: Annual Report 2025, year to 31 December 2025. John Keells Holdings, Cargills (Ceylon) and Hemas Holdings: Annual Report 2025/26, year to 31 March 2026.
Never Stated In Or Out: Commercial Bank, HNB And Dialog
HNB’s report gives a total strategic CSR figure for 2025, covering the bank and the HNB Sustainability Foundation. On the same page (p.106), under a sub-heading for its Ditwah response, it records “a contribution of Rs 100 Mn” to the Rebuild Sri Lanka Fund. The placement suggests the contribution belongs to the CSR total, but the report never says so, there or anywhere else. The audited donations line in Note 18 rose by about Rs 130.7 Mn in the year, which fits the contribution sitting inside it. That is ESGNexus’s arithmetic, not HNB’s disclosure. The
Commercial Bank board approved a Rs 110 Mn donation to the Fund (p.225), and the CSR section counts it in the total “deployed for Ditwah relief efforts,” along with dry rations and branch-level help (pp.132, 134). The bank’s CSR Trust allocated less to community work in 2025 than that total, so the relief did not run through the Trust. The audited line where a donation would normally sit is Note 21, “Donations including contribution made to the CSR Trust Fund”, which rose by more than half. The report does not say whether the relief sits there.
Dialog’s report says it “pledged Rs. 420 million” to the Government’s Rebuilding Sri Lanka initiative and that the funding “will aid” hospital and school recovery (p.14). On p.43, disaster relief and community investment appear as two separate items. Yet the value-added statement (p.285) shows community-investment donations up more than thirteen-fold, nearly the size of the pledge. The report answers neither obvious question: is the pledge inside the community figure, and was a commitment written in the future tense paid in 2025 or booked when it was made?
None of this shows money was misreported. It shows a reader cannot tell, and a CSR figure that may include a one-off national donation cannot be compared with last year’s, or a peer’s, until the company says so.
Labelled, Not Measured: John Keells Holdings
John Keells Holdings (JKH) is the only of the seven companies that tells readers relief is included in its CSR figure. Its Social and Relationship Capital Review opens with Rs 396 Mn of “Group Spend on CSR (includes disaster relief)” (p.113). It does not say how much of that is relief, and the same report prints two other community figures (pp.26, 29) without reconciling either to it.
The Fund money is harder to place. The Chairperson’s message reports “a contribution of Rs.500 million by John Keells Holdings PLC and its affiliated companies” to the Government’s Rebuilding Sri Lanka initiative (p.10). That is more than the CSR figure, which is said to include relief, so it cannot all be included there. The Directors’ Report records Group donations for the year at more than four times the previous year’s, and says these amounts “do not include contributions on account of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives” (p.457). The holding company made no donations. The report does not say which of the two buckets holds the Fund money.
Part of the Rs 500 Mn was never JKH’s to book. When the gift was announced in January, the Rs 400 Mn then described came from six named companies, including Nations Trust Bank and South Asia Gateway Terminals at Rs 100 Mn each. Both are associates that JKH accounts for by the equity method (p.537), so their donations sit in their own accounts, not in JKH’s consolidated figures. The annual report’s total is Rs 100 Mn higher than January’s, and it does not list the contributors.
The report also prints Rs 518 Mn of “investments towards disaster response” in its business model (p.50). The figure sits under financial and manufactured capital, beside capital expenditure, and the report defines it nowhere else. It may describe spending on the Group’s own recovery or on business opportunities after the cyclone. ESGNexus does not treat it as relief, and it should not be added to the CSR figure or read as giving.
Separated, But Only In The Accounts: Sampath
Sampath reports Rs 125 Mn as its total investment in CSR initiatives for 2025, and its Rs 100 Mn Fund donation is not part of it. The value-added statement on p.539 prints “Corporate social responsibility projects” and “Donations” as separate lines under “To Community”. The Directors’ Report records the Rs 100 Mn as a donation to the Government under Section 168(1)(g) of the Companies Act (p.352), and audited Note 15 agrees.
The separation is complete, as ESGNexus noted in its recent piece on Sampath’s Wewata Jeewayak programme. The difficulty is where a reader has to look. The narrative describes the donation inside the social and relationship capital chapter (p.164), but no narrative page prints the two numbers together. A reader who stops at the highlights, or uses the “To Community” subtotal, which includes the donation, sees a different picture from one who reads to p.539.
Separated By One Sentence: Cargills
Cargills has the plainest disclosure of the seven: no value-added statement and no donations line in its notes. Its giving totals appear in one paragraph of the Directors’ Report (p.141). Company donations of Rs 100 Mn come first, then Group community investment, introduced with the words “In addition”.
| In addition, the Group invested Rs. 60.9 Mn. — Cargills (Ceylon) PLC, Annual Report of the Board, 2025/26 |
That sentence does the work the others leave undone. The Chairman’s statement reports a Rs 100 Mn contribution to the Fund (p.28). The community figure is smaller than the gift, so the gift cannot be inside it, and “In addition” says as much. The Company’s donations match the gift, though the report does not link the two in words.
Two caveats remain. Cargills also gave food and supplies “valued at over Rs. 45 Mn.” to more than 20,000 families (p.62), labelled separately. Add the Rs 13 Mn school meals programme, and the sum comes close to the community total, suggesting the relief goods are included in it. The report does not say so; it identifies the same gap at HNB and holds it to the same standard. And total incentives to farmers on p.54 carry a footnote that they include “relief assistance provided to farmers on account of Ditwah”, with no amount.
The simplest disclosure in the set held up best when a large one-off gift arrived, because it already kept donations and community spending apart in words.
Never Priced: Hemas
Hemas, a consumer and healthcare group, supported communities after the cyclone “through the provision of essential medicines, the conduct of medical camps … and the donation of essential consumer goods” (p.55). The report assigns no rupee value to any of it, and it records no contribution to the Fund. Its community figure is a single audited donations line, and nothing in the text connects the relief to it.
There is nothing to separate, and the cost is visibility: in any spend comparison, unpriced relief counts as zero. Hemas cannot be compared on spend with a company that valued its rations, as Cargills did. Both are defensible choices, and they produce numbers that do not line up.
What The Press Releases Said First
Before any of this appeared in an annual report, it appeared in the newspapers. ESGNexus logged announcements from about 95 organisations that gave after the cyclone, mostly private companies, associations, and state bodies not listed on the CSE. They show the same habits that later make the reports hard to compare.
| Pattern | What it looks like | Examples, listed and private |
| Commitment words | “Pledged” or “committed” for money handed over by cheque, then another word in the annual report. | SPAR Group (“pledged”, then “officially handed over”); HNB (“committed” in the press, “contribution” in its report); Dialog (“committed” in its release, “pledged” in its report) |
| One headline, several kinds of money | Fund cash, own relief work and donated goods added into one total. | Commercial Bank (“total commitment exceeding Rs. 125 million”, of which Rs 110 Mn went to the Fund); NOLIMIT (Rs 60 Mn, of which Rs 15 Mn went to the Government); The Technocity (Rs 50 Mn, of which Rs 30 Mn was computer devices and ICT facilities) |
| Goods priced and unpriced | Some releases put a rupee value on rations and supplies; others describe them without one. | Priced: Cargills, Prima Group. Unpriced: HNB’s relief packs; Commercial Bank’s dry rations in its press coverage, which its annual report later prices |
| Whose money | Group gifts credited to a parent, and employee money pooled with the employer’s. | A Rs 400 Mn gift announced for a John Keells-led consortium, with six named contributing companies; PIOTEX Gloves with its Employees’ Welfare Association, split not given; TRCSL, a day’s staff salary plus employee-welfare funds |
Source: Company releases and press reports, December 2025 to May 2026, listed under Sources; ESGNexus donor log of about 95 organisations, compiled 2 October 2026.
Small givers are the part of the record most likely to disappear. Southern Constructions & Engineering, a private contractor, gave Rs 1 Mn; the record is a government release about a cheque handed over at the Presidential Secretariat. MAC Holdings said its Rs 5 Mn came from its Christmas celebrations budget. Neither is listed, and the Fund’s own website names just four donors. For most private givers, the press release is the only account there will be.
Even the Fund’s name moves. Officially it is the Rebuilding Sri Lanka Fund; the reports and releases also call it the Rebuild Sri Lanka Fund, the Rebuilding Sri Lanka National Fund and an “initiative”. Sampath’s report alone uses three versions.
Why It Matters Beyond This Year
CSR-to-profit ratios break first. A company whose 2025 figure may hold a one-off national donation will appear to have multiplied its giving, then to cut it in 2026, with no change to its programmes. Rankings that take printed numbers at face value will reward whichever treatment gives the larger figure. In the ESGNexus CSR Matrix, record a one-off component only where the company states it; where the report is silent, leave the field blank.
Ditwah will not be the last disaster to bring a wave of corporate giving, and the question these reports left open will return with the next one.
What To Do Now
1. State in or out, in one sentence. Say beside the CSR figure whether a disaster gift is in it. Cargills’ “In addition” shows how little it takes.
2. Print both numbers on the same page. The only page that shows both of Sampath’s numbers appears more than 500 pages after its headline. Put the relief amount and the CSR total in the same table.
3. Price in-kind relief, or say it is unpriced. One sentence stating that goods and services were not valued tells the reader how to interpret the figure.
4. Separate pledged from paid. If a commitment is booked this year but spent later, say how much was paid and how much remains.
5. Keep relief apart from business response. Money given to others is relief. Spending on the company’s own recovery, or on business the disaster created, belongs in another line under its own label.
6. For analysts: read past the highlights. Check the value-added statement, the Section 168(1)(g) disclosure and the notes before comparing 2025 with 2024, and adjust for relief only where the company says what it included.
ESGNexus is recording each company’s Ditwah treatment in its CSR Matrix and will ask the same question of these seven companies’ next reports: can a reader tell, from the page, what the CSR figure contains? Any company named here is welcome to tell us whether its relief sits inside its CSR figure, and we will publish the answer.
Sources & Further Reading
World Bank, “Damage from Cyclone Ditwah in Sri Lanka Estimated at $4.1 Billion”, 22 December 2025 — worldbank.org
EconomyNext, “Sri Lanka establishes rebuilding fund after Cyclone Ditwah-hit disaster”, 1 December 2025 — economynext.com
Rebuilding Sri Lanka Fund, official website, accessed 2 October 2026 — rebuildingsrilanka.gov.lk
Hatton National Bank PLC, Annual Report 2025, pp.18, 106, 425, 567 — cse.lk
Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC, Annual Report 2025, pp.130, 132, 134, 225, 351 — cse.lk
Dialog Axiata PLC, Annual Report 2025, pp.12, 14, 43, 285 — cse.lk
John Keells Holdings PLC, Annual Report 2025/26, pp.10, 26, 29, 50, 113, 125, 457, 511, 537 — cse.lk
Sampath Bank PLC, Annual Report 2025, pp.15, 164, 352, 405, 539 — cse.lk
Cargills (Ceylon) PLC, Integrated Annual Report 2025/26, pp.28, 54, 62, 141 — cse.lk
Hemas Holdings PLC, Annual Report 2025/26, pp.20, 55, 172 — cse.lk
Dialog Axiata PLC, “Dialog commits LKR 420 million to Rebuilding Sri Lanka after Cyclone Ditwah”, 6 January 2026 — dialog.lk
Sunday Times Business Times, “ComBank’s Cyclone Ditwah recovery support crosses Rs. 125 m”, 28 December 2025 — sundaytimes.lk
Business Today, “HNB commits 100 million rupees to support Cyclone Ditwah recovery”, 5 February 2026 — businesstoday.lk
Daily FT, “Cargills contributes Rs. 100 m to ‘Rebuilding Sri Lanka’ Fund”, 23 December 2025 — ft.lk
Daily FT, “SPAR Group, South Africa, pledges Rs. 35 m to the ‘Rebuilding Sri Lanka’ Fund”, 2 January 2026 — ft.lk
Newswire, “NOLIMIT Pledges Rs. 60 Million for National Disaster Relief Following Cyclone Ditwah”, 11 December 2025 — newswire.lk
Newswire, “Prima Group Sri Lanka Supports National Flood Relief Efforts with Over Rs. 300 Million in Dry Rations”, 1 December 2025 — newswire.lk
Sunday Times Business Times, “Technocity offers Rs. 50 m to support SL’s relief efforts”, 28 December 2025 — sundaytimes.lk
The Morning, “Dialog, John Keells support ‘Rebuilding Sri Lanka’”, 8 January 2026 — themorning.lk
LankaTalks, “John Keells Holdings contributes Rs. 400 million to ‘Rebuilding Sri Lanka’ Fund”, 8 January 2026 — lankatalks.com
news.lk, “Financial Contribution from PIOTEX GLOVES (PVT) LTD to the ‘Rebuilding Sri Lanka’ Fund”, 18 February 2026 — news.lk
news.lk, “Financial Contribution from the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka to the ‘Rebuilding Sri Lanka’ Fund”, 2 January 2026 — news.lk
news.lk, “Rs. 1 Million Contribution from Southern Constructions & Engineering (Pvt) Ltd to the ‘Rebuilding Sri Lanka’ Fund”, 15 December 2025 — news.lk
MAC Holdings, “MAC Holdings (Pvt) Ltd. contributed Rs. 5 million to the Government’s ‘Rebuilding Sri Lanka’ Fund”, 13 May 2026 — macholdings.com
ESGNexus, “Sampath Bank Publishes The Cost Of Every Tank In Wewata Jeewayak, Now In Its 25th Year”, 30 September 2026 — esgnexus.lk
ESGNexus, “Seven Times, an Auditor Vouched for a Sri Lankan CSR Number. All Seven Were Before March 2023”, 16 September 2026 — esgnexus.lk
ESGNexus, “Hemas Publishes a Four-Year CSR Reach Number. It Has Fallen Every Year, and No Report Says Why.” 10 September 2026 — esgnexus.lk
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Data disclaimer: This article draws on publicly available documents. ESGNexus does not independently verify company disclosures. Errors and omissions excepted.