Introduction

Oct 01, 2010 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's Citizens Development and Business Finance, a firm 35 percent owned by Ceylinco Insurance is listing itself to comply with a central bank direction and pave the way for raising capital in the future, officials said. CDB is listing on the 'diri savi' board of the Colombo Stock Exchange without making an initial offer to the public and is expected to trade from October 06, chief executive Mahesh Nanayakkara said.

The firm started more than a decade ago as a 'merchant bank' under the name of Ceylinco Development Bank, engaged in leasing and has been registered as a finance company under the new name.

The CDB group is reporting 1.9 billion rupees of revenues for the 15 months ended March 2010, following a change in the accounting year from December.

The firm had 6.67 billion rupees in assets with 2.9 billion rupees in leasing, 1.2 billion in loans and 874 million rupees. The firm has not bought into property or stocks. It had deposits of 4.8 billion rupees by March 2010.

Arjuna Herath, a partner at Ernst & Young said it was able to list well ahead of the central bank deadline of June 2010 because its balance sheet was clean and well managed.

Its lease portfolio had contracted last from 3.5 bil