Mercantile Investments and Finance ends FY21 on strong note

Chief Operating Officer/Director (Non-Board) Dhanushka Fonseka

• Profit After Tax grew by 65% recording a NP of Rs. 614 m
• Total assets over Rs. 41 b
• Shareholders’ funds grew by 16% amounting to Rs. 10.3 b
• Deposit base grew to Rs. 23 b 
• Moratorium relief granted over Rs. 9 b loan base

Mercantile Investments and Finance PLC (MI) in FY21 has done exceptionally well, achieving a net profit before tax of Rs. 827 million and an after-tax profit of Rs. 614 million which accounted for a 65% growth in profits compared to the preceding year. 

The company has exceeded the prudential requirements for the NBFI sector and built more than adequate capital buffers, with a core capital ratio of 15.31% (minimum requirement 6.5%), recorded liquid asset ratio of 17.07% (well above the minimum requirement) and an asset base of over Rs. 41 billion. Meanwhile the deposit base increased to Rs. 23 b and shareholders’ funds grew by 16% amounting to Rs. 10.3 b. 

Strengthening MI’s footprint, the company launched its gold loans division to drive the current expansion on the lending portfolio, while offering a variety of products, namely vehicle leasing and loans, auto drafts, microfinance, property-backed lending, fixed deposits and Savings. 

MI has launched an ATM card facility to further support the savings base of the company. Moreover, company deployed a state of the art fully fledged call centre operations at Kohuwala, to facilitate a more effective recovery medium and a sound customer relationship management.

“Although the past year had been a challenging year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as a company we made sure to keep our employees safe and always ensured their well- being. During the lockdown everyone got their full salaries and even the bonuses were paid as a relief to their families. Further we were able to manage our liquidity levels well, as a result deposit interest payments were made way before the due date to ensure the investments were well secured. Moratoriums were granted over nine billion loan base, to support our customers during these tough times,” Chief Operating Officer/Director (Non-Board) Dhanushka Fonseka said.

He added that the traditional brick-and-mortar had run its course and the future was digital and the COVID-19 pandemic and the new normal around social distancing has only reinforced this fact. “We continue to invest in innovative systems that help us optimise processes, and we refreshed our digital offerings to meet the evolving expectations of our clients. We have enabled our clients to pay their rentals at any of the over 30,000 merchants on the cash network. We launched an interactive website with an Internet Payment Gateway (IPG) platform, broad basing digital payment options for MI customers, to transact conveniently from wherever they are located. We also plan to introduce a mobile app for a more convenient and seamless user experience.”