People’s Leasing Kandy branch celebrates 20th anniversary coupled with CSR programs

People’s Leasing & Finance PLC (PLC) secures the market leader position in the non-bank finance sector in Sri Lanka. PLC Kandy branch celebrated its 20th anniversary recently with the participation of senior management of PLC, Asela Bandara, Branch Manager, Kandy PLC, branch managers of Kandy District PLC branches, many stakeholders including a leading set of customers of the Kandy branch and the staff. 

To coincide with the occasion a CSR activity was carried out by opening savings accounts with Rs. 250 each for 1,000 odd school children and offering each of these children with Rs. 1,000 worth of a bag full of school stationery. In addition to this, the Kandy branch took steps to fulfil basic needs of the village schools as a part of the CSR.

PLC’s Kandy branch was commissioned in February 1998 as the first PLC branch unveiled outside Colombo. The branch opened having its first manager I.L.A. Gaffar with two other officials, today has a staff of 30 and assets worth of Rs. 3 billion. It is recognised as one of the best PLC branches outside Colombo.

This became the first PLC branch to achieve a profit of Rs. 150 million. It has offered customers leasing and loan facilities worth of Rs. 3.5 billion as of today and is the PLC branch that has the most amount of short term investments.

Over 2,000 customers have invested in the branch exceeding Rs. 2.5 billion. These feats made PLC Kandy branch to become the best PLC branch in2013/14 and 2014/15 in the ‘The Best PLC Branch of the Year’ competition organised by PLC Head Office’ and also PLC Kandy branch won the first runner-up in 2004, 2008/09, 2009/10 and in 2015/16 in same competition.

Kandy PLC Branch Manager Asela Bandara said, “Over the past 20 years we have built close relationships with people in Kandy and did business with the intent of upgrading their lives thus we achieved these recognitions. I pay my gratitude to my staff members who were the backbone behind the success story of the branch.”

PLC Kandy branch plays a vital role as regards CSR in the vicinity. Over the past 20 years, the branch has engaged in many worthy CSR projects.

The branch offered Nescafe free of charge to people who come to see Kandy Esala Perahera constantly for nine years. Last year it offered ‘Gilanpasa’ to 10,000 Buddhist priests and Dasa Sil Mathavo who came to see the Perahera.

Another special CSR by the branch was contributing towards increasing greenery in the ‘Udawatta Kele’ in Kandy town with a view to countering air pollution within the city. 

Other CSR activities of the branch include; donating books to children of low-income families in Kandy with the support of Police Public Relations Unit, donating medical equipment to Kandy General Hospital’s Cardio section, bearing the monthly cost of beautifying the hospital garden, donating school uniforms, shoes and books to the children of Hanguranketha Mulbaya and Rukwood pre-schools, attending to health needs of Mulabaya school and providing one million rupees worth of clothing, medicine and dry ration to people affected by Tsunami in Kalmunai and Kaththankudi. 

People’s Leasing Company was commissioned in 1995 as a wholly owned subsidiary of the biggest state bank in Sri Lanka, the People’s Bank. PLC is currently the market leader in the non-bank finance sector in Sri Lanka.

Fitch Rating Lanka has assigned PLC a credit rating of AA- (lka) which makes PLC the highest rated finance company in the country. PLC is the only Sri Lankan finance company to have two international ratings of which one is equal to the Sovereign from Standard & Poor’s (‘B+/B’) and the other is one notch below the Sovereign from Fitch Rating International (‘B’). 

PLC’s financial service product portfolio includes; leasing, fixed deposits, saving accounts, personal and business loans, margin trading, factoring and Islamic financial services. 

People’s Leasing conglomerate consists of five subsidiaries namely, People’s Insurance PLC, People’s Microfinance Ltd., People’s Leasing Property Development Ltd., People’s Leasing Fleet Management Ltd. and People’s Leasing Havelock Properties Ltd.

The uniqueness of PLC is its strength and the stability to provide diverse financial solutions under one roof to its customers, thus enabling the customers to obtain convenient and customer friendly services.