Monday, September 26, 2011

Sri Lanka finance firm to sell commercial property

Sept 26, 2011 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's The Finance Company, which was put under new management by the financial regulator, is planning to sell commercial property as the firm recovers.

"..[M]easures are being taken to convert non-yielding land stock to yielding stocks and certain pivotal steps are being ascertained to dispose commercial properties..." chairman Preethi Jayawardena told shareholders in the firm's annual report.

The Finance was a firm that faced a run as part of Sri Lanka's Ceylinco group when a series of sub-prime lenders went into crisis in 2008 and 2009.

"With regards to the recovery of group loans, several discussions were held through the mediation of the Central Bank and measures are being currently adopted to recover such loans," he said.

The firm also has substantial exposure to property. In the year to March its gross assets shrank from 27.2 billion rupees to 21.4 billion rupees.

It had 3.7 billion rupees in real estate, 1.9 billion in housing projects, 601 million in lease properties, 1.9 billion in easy payment land loans, 829 million in housing loans, and 1.6 billion rupees in investment properties.

The Finance has been recapitalized by swapping deposits to stock in February though its assets were negative by about 3 billion rupees.

The firm is drawing fresh deposits of about 700 million rupees a month, chief executive Kamal Yatawara said.

In the June quarter the firm reported a profit of 26.3 million rupees against a loss of 430 million a year earlier.
source - www.lbo.lk

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