Lucky Strike

People's Leasing Co. Ltd has struck a deal with India's Ashok Leyland to import commercial vehicles for its customers. People's Leasing Co. Ltd has struck a deal with India's Ashok Leyland to import commercial vehicles for its customers. The one-year deal allows PLC to open letters of credit up to Rs.

3 billion, the firm's Chief Executive D P Kumarage told LBO on Monday.

"The facility will be mostly used to buy trucks and buses," Kumarage said.

With a Rs. 19 billion portfolio, PLC is currently Sri Lanka's biggest leasing companies commanding a 19 percent market share.

Besides offering traditional forms of leasing, PLC has carved a niche in the bus leasing business.

Since 1996, the firm has muscled its way into the vehicle importing business, bringing down some 5,000 buses in the process.

"For a month, we import around 50-60 buses, mainly 52 seaters from India. We also import some cargo trucks," says Udesh Gunawardena, Deputy Manager (Finance).

The import business however, does not dry up PLC's finances like other importers, as it finds ready buyers through its leasing business.

"Buses