First Capital looks to future growth with ‘Performance First’ outlook

First Capital Holdings PLC, a Janashakthi Group Company with over 35 years of industry knowledge, recently concluded its Annual General Meeting presenting the Annual Report 2020-21 on the theme of ‘Performance First’ to its shareholders.

The group recorded an exceptional year reaching new financial and non-financial performance milestones, recording Rs. 2.09 billion in profits after tax for the financial year 2020-21. 

The Company attributed its achievements to the ‘Performance First’ brand strategy adopted throughout First Capital (the Group) to align focus on what mattered across the Group’s businesses, ensuring a consistently high-performance output.

“During the last year we came together to establish a strategy to deliver ‘Performance First’. We set about digitalising processes, amped up knowledge development, and enhanced visibility and customer support to enable a performance driven environment for growth. Moreover, we continued to set benchmarks in the non-bank financial services space with the introduction of facilities such as ‘digital onboarding’ to facilitate non-face-to-face account opening for unit trusts and Government securities clients, a first in Sri Lanka. This performance focus helped us achieve exceptional results across all our businesses and has set us up for an exciting future trajectory,” stated First Capital Holdings Director/Chief Executive Officer Dilshan Wirasekara.

Building on the confidence honed by its years of experience, First Capital consulted and considered stakeholders across the board in formulating the ‘Performance First’ brand promise, focused on exceeding expectations.   “As we look forward to a robust year ahead, we will be delivering on our promises with a solutions mindset and will continue to go the extra mile for our stakeholders. As one of Sri Lanka’s premier financial solutions providers, we are committed to delivering ‘Performance First’ to our stakeholders and reaching our next phase of growth,” Wirasekara added. First Capital is at the forefront of digital transformation and are committed to developing digital services to provide an enhanced customer experience. The Company will also continue its efforts to educate the public of the different financial solutions accessible through the capital market. 

First Capital Treasuries, the primary dealer division accounts for the highest amongst standalone primary dealers raising debt for the Government, taking up as much as 9% and 6% of the total issuance of Treasury bonds and Treasury bills respectively in 2020. The division looks forward to leverage on its expertise to further enhance opportunities from the Government securities market. The wealth management division, First Capital Asset Management, more than doubled its Assets Under Management (AUM) in 2020 disrupting the financial services industry with a range of alternative financial products and services for corporate and retail customers alike. First Capital Ltd., the corporate finance division, played a crucial role redirecting financial resources to corporate clients to tide over the impact of the pandemic by structuring investments and providing robust capital market access to raise funding. The stock brokering division, First Capital Equities, is on a drive to expand its online client base, encouraging newcomers to the stock market to benefit from the booming market. Focused on enhancing performance, it adds value to clients through the dissemination of First Capital’s coveted in-house research which enjoys wide acceptance, covering the debt and equity markets.