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Tuesday, 26 June 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Charumini de Silva
Capitalising on 22 years of successful financial stability and achieving greater heights, industry giant, People’s Leasing and Finance Plc (PLC) has ambitious plans to focus on its core operations, while continuing to introduce innovative products and procedures to bring financial inclusion and contribute significantly to the growth of the economy.
PLC, a fully owned subsidiary of the People’s Bank expressed confidence that the firm was well poised to foray its operations to tap high growth prospects in the booming South Asian countries in the next five years, broadening its vision and scope to the international market.
“PLC is well poised into the future. We will add new products, procedures as we go along to bring finances closer and accessible to many of those who do not have access to bank finance. We have continued to grow and penetrate the market and it is reflected in our results. We will continue our march forward in adding more products and convenience to our customers,” PLC General Manager and CEO Sabry Ibrahim said.
He said that the firm was focused on getting its Bangladesh operations strong and successful like PLC, adding that they wish to expand its footprint in the South Asian region within the next five years.
“I am very happy to note that in a short span of time we have already broke-even and started to make profits. Bangladesh is a very promising and growing market, while a lot of foreign companies are now setting up companies in the country. We are confident that this subsidiary will also make a strong contribution in the profits of the company. Once the Bangladesh operation is stable, with our experience we want to broaden our scope to the other South Asian countries,” he added.
According to him the company has set itself a minimum 10% growth both in assets as well as in profits for this financial year.
With a market share of around 13%, Ibrahim highlighted the strength has been derived from three major factors which includes support and guidance parent company People’s Bank, customers and its staff.
“Our strategic objective is to be the top player in the areas we are operating in,” he stated.
He also acknowledged that from the inception PLC had a very charismatic and a visionary leader D.P. Kumarage who guided its staff and harnessed the resources to reach its position today. “This company has a winning formula so I don’t intend to make any major changes. He (Kumarage) has built a strong, solid foundation for us on which we are now able to now continue our journey. I will continue to build upon all the skills, competencies and other resources that this company has,” he said.
Within the third quarter of the calendar year, PLC is planning to introduce variable rate loans, variable rate leases, housing loans, which are quite unique to what the banks are offering at present.
“We are focusing at affordability, we are stretching the leasing and vehicle loan products up to seven years allowing the customer to benefit out of the interest rate volatility,” PLC Deputy General manager Laksanda Gunawardena said.
He also said that within the next three weeks they hope to launch new savings product and an investment scheme to cater to the children’s market. Ibrahim said fixed deposits and saving are a big part of the business, where the FDIs portfolio alone grew by over 50% in 2017. PLC having 75% ownership by the Government, he assured that all PLC deposits are effectively is backed by the People’s Bank and the Government of Sri Lanka.
State of the economy, volatile interest rates and fierce competition were outlined as major challenges in going forward.
With interest rates are slowly coming down, he noted that it will benefit all economic activities. “People don’t like huge volatilities in the interest rates because it is difficult to make business decisions. We are hoping that we are coming to an era of stable interest rates. With inflation also recording a declining trend during the past few months, we hope that it will lead to low interest rates, which will give the economy a boost and help the entire industry.”
Ibrahim however said that he has no expectations of the Government easing regulation on loan to value (LTV) restrictions imposed on vehicle registrations.
“Vehicle imports are a large part of outflow of foreign currency and the Government is mindful of that. I can’t see the authorities easing LTV rules because they are still having a balance of payment (BOP) problem,” he pointed out.
He stressed the LTV restrictions on vehicle registration certainly was a major challenge to grow the business last year. “The business grew, but not as much as we would have expected to. However, we are also strong in the commercial vehicle sector and those rules are less stringent in the commercial vehicles sector, which helped us to balance it out as the Government also need those for their development drive.”
PLC pride itself on having made its fair contribution to the country’s economic growth and to enhance the quality of life of many Sri Lankans ranging from individuals, SMEs to blue chip corporates in all parts of the island through a branch network of 150, eight service centres and 106 window office at People’s Bank. PLC is rated AA- (lka) by Fitch Ratings Lanka and in 2018 brand value has increased to Rs. 6,486 million. PLC’s product portfolio includes leasing, fixed deposits, savings accounts, personal and business loans, margin trading factoring and Islamic financial services.
Pix by Daminda Harsha Perera
