Sanasa Development Bank profits soar by 100 % in 2014

SANASA Development Bank PLC (SDB) said on Wednesday that it recorded an ‘outstanding performance’ for the financial year ending December 2014 with profits up by 103 per cent.

In a media statement, the development bank said that last quarter profits also rose sharply by 450 per cent. “With these growth rates, SDB recorded a profit after tax of Rs. 504 million during 2014,” the bank said.

Other performance indicators also reflected significant increases indicating a definite growth trend in the bank’s performance in the year ending 2014. The Total Interest Income grew by 10 per cent on a Y-O-Y basis.

The bank’s net fee and commission income grew by 35 per cent from Rs. 120 million in 2013 to Rs. 162 million in 2014, primarily due to the increase in the overall asset base of the bank.

As a strategic move, SANASA divested its equity investment in Peoples Leasing and Finance PLC last year.

The SDB, which started its business in 1997, now has a network of 82 branches and is preparing for the next level of banking which is expanding services to gear itself to cater to the lower end of the SME sector as well.

Bank deposits grew from Rs. 23 billion in 2013 to Rs. 30 billion in 2014 with two new attractive loan products targetting government pensioners and ex-service personnel in second half of 2014 contributing to the growth in the loan portfolio.

Commenting on the success in 2014, SDB CEO Nimal C. Hapuarachchi added, “Over the years, we have been able to support a large number of individuals, households and communities across the country, to empower themselves from the grassroots level to a sustainable level of growth in the medium and long term through responsible financing”. 

Bank Chairperson M.S. Kiriwandeniya said, “While we are gearing ourselves to step into the next level of service in the SME sector we are also constantly keeping our pulse on the needs of our core clientele and improvising products to suit their needs and demands.”
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Colombo bourse chugs along the same route – analysts say

Share price trends have been on the lower side for several weeks since a new administration emerged with analysts attributing the downturn to a combination of reasons including uncertainty over impending polls and, as of this week, the approaching April season.

The Colombo bourse started the week on a slightly higher note on Monday’s early trade in another trading session marked by thin trade, but closed the week on a slump owing to investors opting to wait of a ‘clearer direction’, brokers said.

The momentous coalition between the country’s two main political parties, UNP and SLFP didn’t do much to uplift the listless sentiment in the Colombo bourse with the indices edging higher in early trades during the first three days and ending lower by day’s close. This pattern changed during Thursday when indices slumped right throughout.

During the week a common chorus by analysts was that traders opted to stay on the sidelines amid the developments in the political and economic fronts as the days dragged on. Brokers lamented that the index has fallen below 7,000 after nearly seven months. They added that activity levels weren’t high for the past few weeks, another reason why the market momentum isn’t picking up. “The retail and the high networth investors are waiting on the sidelines till the elections are over,” an analyst said, noting that both these segments are hardly investing based on fundamentals.

“This isn’t the case with foreigners,” he said, noting that this is why they have been net buyers for the most part of this year. A broker added that the market will ‘chug along’

in the same mode till April end. “This has much to do with the lack of direction and the holiday season,” he said.

On Friday, Colombo shares showed early gains with media reports of President Maithripala Sirisena promising the Chinese government that Sri Lanka intends to resume the contentious port project after problems are “sorted” out, only to fall at the close.

“This was a sore point in the share market, where questions were being raised about Sri Lanka halting the US$1.4 billion port city project, which was damaging ties with China. Many investors were questioning this move which impacted the market negatively in the past months,” an analyst said. He said that suspending this project would deter foreign investors.

But the market shed returns on Friday for the fifth consecutive session amid the uncertainties in the government policies which continued to affect the market sentiments, analysts said.
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SEC probes take a decisive turn

By Duruthu Edirimuni Chandrasekera

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reopening investigations in cases that were closed during the past regime in a bid to determine if ‘all’ information had been considered in scrutinising the alleged malpractices especially when files were closed due to ‘insufficient’ information.

“This was a popular ‘excuse’ when certain probes didn’t see the light of day,” an analyst commented, adding that this should be sufficient cause to restart inquiries pertaining to market misconduct.

This new turn in the SEC has come on the back of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe slamming corrupt sections of Sri Lanka’s private sector to the extent of naming businessmen like Dilith Jayaweera and Nimal Perera.

“There are a number of allegations of violations of the Colombo Stock Exchange market rules and SEC regulations. The minor ones were compounded. Thirteen large cases were abandoned purportedly on a lack of evidence,” he told parliament, adding that they were not probed or were settled when it should have been probed further.

“I would like this to be recorded in the Hansard. I have requested the Securities and Exchange Commission to go into these cases. If necessary, I will bring legislation to permit such inquiry. I am also seeking the appointment of a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to inquire into these transactions.”

A SEC source said that a PSC is not immediate, but his comments on compounding and abandoning certain cases purportedly were being pursued in all ‘seriousness’. “We want to verify whether earlier they (SEC) had ‘sufficiently’ gone into matters with these probes.” Further he said that many are now coming forward with stock market related complaints as they feel that there’s a free and fair climate for investigations. “They are free from fear and intimidation,” he said, noting that the SEC has got a ‘substantial’ number of complaints pertaining to share market misconduct during the past two months.

“We have received files full of complaints. Some are with names and some anonymous,” he said, adding that these complaints range from manipulation, insider dreading, pump and dump, stockbrokers and investment advisors misleading small shareholders, trading on accounts under third party names, etc.
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