Talking shop

TFC announces appointment of new Board of Directors

The new Board of Directors of The Finance Company Dr. T. Senthilverl, Violet W. Dissanayake, R. Nadarajah, N.C. Rupasinghe, Chairman of TFC Preethi Jayawardena and CEO of TFC Kamal Yatawara chat after the press Conference to announce their appointment - Pic by daminda harsha perera.

By Cassandra Mascarenhas

The Finance Company PLC continuing with the restructuring of the company announced the appointment of its new Board of Directors yesterday, consisting of individuals from different financial backgrounds and only four members of the initial board.

Appointed by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, the Board consists of the new Chairman, Preethi Jayawardena; Director/CEO Kamal Yatawara; Directors Ajith Devasurendra, Nirmala Anura Fernando, R. Nadarajah, Violet Dissanayake, T.B. Ekanayaka, N.C. Rupasinghe and Dr. T. Senthiverl. Dr. Senthiverl is also the company’s single largest shareholder having invested Rs. 495 million.

This appointment comes following TFC’s successful public share issue last month through which it raised Rs. 1.6 billion in fresh capital and the company’s non voting share issue for its customers, where the conversions of the private placement amounted to Rs. 2 billion.

“The monetary board has taken measures to remove any board members who may have mismanaged resources, leaving only four of the original board members on the newly appointed Board. I can assure you that there is no risk whatsoever and the new Board will take further steps to make structural changes, ensure credible policy and take the company forward,” assured Jayawardena.

A chartered accountant by profession, Jayawardena currently serves as the Managing Director and CEO of Chemanex PLC and is a Non-Executive Director of CIC PLC. He has held many senior positions both locally and overseas, specialising in finance and treasury operations and is also a member of the Monetary Policy Consultative Committee of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

The company has obtained over Rs. 400 million in new deposits in the month of January, making a positive on them – the first month it has managed to achieve this. TFC has also whittled down its project loss to little over a billion from the Rs. 4.5 billion it reported at the height of the Golden Key crisis.

Jayawardena outlined several plans of restructuring the organisation in the near future, including the conversion of further deposits to shares in order to provide their valued customers with more concessions and benefits, obtaining fresh injections of capital and restructuring the company’s bank borrowings, which currently amount to over Rs. 1.5 billion.

Yatawara stated that the company had now reached a point where demands for refunds on deposits had fallen drastically and guaranteed that all refunds would be issued smoothly in due time.

“I am also keen on going for a re-rate and we will definitely have the company rated as I want to see where it stands. The bond market has opened up – so why not target that? There is nothing to prevent us from going for a corporate bond either as we are now in a position of absolute strength,” the Chairman added confidently.

Major Government banks Bank of Ceylon, People’s Bank and Seylan Bank have become key shareholders of TFC and encouraged by the share issue and the stability achieved through the new stakeholders and now the appointment of the new Board of Directors, the company is geared to moving forward in the non-financial services market in Sri Lanka.