Category: Banking and Finance

July 22, 2014 (LBO) – George Steuart Finance Deshodaya Development Finance Limited (DDFC), has inked a deal to acquire George Steuart Finance Plc, which valued the licensed finance company at 500 million rupees. In the year to March, George Steuart Finance reported profits of 4.6 million rupees (45 cents per share) on interest income of […]

July 17, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Commercial Bank of Ceylon said it will acquire Indra Finance, a finance company linked to a top vehicle retailer for 870 million rupees. Indra Finance had 507 million rupees in equity 73 million rupees in profits and 2.0 billion rupees in assets according to the last balance sheet […]

July 17, 2014 (LBO) – Benefits from a state guarantee for gold-backed loans (pawning) will be temporary, a report by Standard & Poor’s, a rating agency said. “The credit guarantee for pawning loans will provide only brief respite to Sri Lanka’s banking industry, which is still struggling to overcome the effects of declining gold prices,” […]

June 17, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s National Development Bank and DFCC Bank has engaged Boston Consulting Group (India) Pvt Ltd, to advice on a planned merger. The banks said in a joint stock exchange filing that no final decision has been made on the merger. The two banks are merging under a regulatory move […]

July 16, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Commercial Bank of Ceylon said Sivakrishnarajah Renganathan, the Bank’s Deputy General Manager Personal Banking has been appointed Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director. The appointment takes effect on July 17. He has been with Commercial Bank for 34 years. In July 2003, he was appointed country manager Bangladesh, […]

July 10, 2014 (LBO) – Countries with high levels of externally financed domestic credit should be careful about loose monetary policy, a report by Standard and Poor’s which found Sri Lanka to be most exposed in the region after New Zealand said. Several Asian countries including China were loosening policy in response to a slowing […]

July 10, 2014 (LBO) – Sharhan Muhseen a Sri Lanka born investment banker, has been appointed Head of Financial Institutions for Southeast Asia at Credit Suisse, a Zurich-based financial group. “We are delighted to have Sharhan joining us at Credit Suisse,” Michael Tan, Head of Financial Institutions Group (FIG) Coverage for Asia Pacific said in […]

July 04 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-run Bank of Ceylon is planning to 8.0 billion rupees of debt which has been given an expected rating ‘AA(lka) (EXP)’ Fitch Ratings said.The Colombo-listed debentures will have tenors of 5 and 8 years and will have fixed and floating coupons. It will be used for Tier II […]

July 03, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s bank credit is estimated to grow 14 percent in 2014 and outlook for the sector is ‘stable’ with bad loans to also stabilize this year, Moody’s, a rating agency said.“¦[A] pipeline of infrastructure projects is expected to boost economic growth, together with an accommodative monetary policy,” Srikanth Vadlamani, […]

July 01, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank said ‘almost all’ banks and finance companies have submitted plans to merge or acquire others in a regulatory driven push to consolidate and reduce the number of financial institutions in the country.“These plans will now be reviewed by the Central Bank with a view to facilitating […]

July 01, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s TKS Finance Limited said it was acquiring Asian Finance Limited under a financial sector consolidation initiated by the regulator.The company said its shareholder planned to inject more capital to the merged entity. It would have a branches in Colombo, Ratnapura, Matara, Negombo, Nugegoda, Kandy, Kiribathgoda, Kurunegala, Galle, Ambalangoda […]

June 30, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s credit to private business from commercial banks fell 15.7 billion rupees in April 2014, while credit to government also fell, official data showed, as inflation remained low and the exchange rate was strong. Credit to state enterprises edged up to 331.1 billion rupees in April from 330.0 billion […]