LB Finance secures 1st place for fourth consecutive time in K Seeds Investments’ ranking report

Friday, 25 September 2020 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

LB Finance Managing Director Sumith Adhihetty (left) receives the report from K Seeds Investments Financial Analysts Lasan Algama, Mashood Nazraar and Prarthana Sewwandi

K Seeds Investments identified LB Finance PLC as the best performing Finance Company under the 1st category among the 31 listed Finance Companies in Sri Lanka through a ranking carried out based on their financial performance for the fourth quarter of 2019/20.

The report segregates the finance companies based on the size of their asset base, and ranks them in their respective categories among their peers based on nine financial metrics, which are calculated from the quarterly financial statements. LB Finance topped the overall spectrum by belonging to “Category 1” (asset base > Rs. 100 billion). The Categories 2, 3 and 4 represent the Companies having an asset base between Rs. 20-100 billion, 10-20 billion and less than 10 billion respectively.

Although the quarter under review from 1 January to 31 March 2020 was in most part prior to the devastating consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, it witnessed unfavourable macro-economic and market conditions. This environment created a significant impact on the financial health and status of finance companies as they have a significant exposure to higher risk individuals and institutions as compared to licensed commercial banks. However, despite all these factors LB Finance PLC managed to maintain their top rank for the fourth consecutive time in the series of ranking reports released by K Seeds Investments on the finance sector of Sri Lanka.The report ranks the finance companies according to their financial results released through interim reports on the Colombo Stock Exchange across 9 key performance indicators (KPIs) – cost/income ratio, net profit margin, impairment to loan book, return on equity, return on assets, net interest margin, deposit growth, loan growth and net profit growth. These 9 KPIs are weighted equally, and an overall ranking is arrived at based on the aggregate score for each category.

K Seeds Investments is a boutique investment banking firm, specialising in mergers and acquisitions, balance sheet structuring, equity/debt placements, treasury management, corporate restructuring and talent management.