Senkadagala Finance secures its biggest long-term foreign funding

Friday, 3 July 2020 00:08 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Dutch Development Bank extends 5-year facility worth $ 25 m
New funding exclusively to support lending for green vehicles

Senkadagala Finance Plc has secured its biggest long-term funding worth $ 25 million from FMO, the Dutch Development Bank.

The five-year facility obtained at favourable terms will be exclusively used to boost Senkadagala Finance’s support for green vehicle business.

This is Senkadagala Finance’s third foreign funding with the previous two being from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) worth $ 7 million in 2014 and $ 15 million in 2018. The latter was for funding activities undertaken by women entrepreneurs.

Given the current uncertainty in global financial markets owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, Senkadagala Finance being able to attract long-term favourable funding from an institution such as FMO augurs well for the company and Sri Lanka.

FMO’s support to Senkadagala Finance is based on the strength of the latter’s balance sheet, growth potential and sound track record of partnerships with foreign funding organisations such as the IFC previously.

Vehicle financing forms the bulk of Senkadagala’s business and the FMO funding will be utilised to promote wider use of electric and hybrid vehicles in the country. The company plans to step up servicing this growing need and trend among customers.

Leasing and hire purchase revenue for the quarter ended 31 December 2019 amounted to Rs. 4.3 billion out of Rs. 5.3 billion overall for Senkadagala Finance. This segment’s assets amounted to Rs. 24.6 billion out of the total of Rs. 34.3 billion.