Thursday Oct 29, 2026
Thursday Oct 29, 2026
Thursday, 29 October 2026 05:41 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
AFC Managing Director Romani De Silva - Pic by Shehan Gunasekara
Alliance Finance Company PLC (AFC) yesterday said its Board of Directors had approved raising up to Rs. 1 billion through an Orange Bond issue, set to be the first Orange Bond listed in Sri Lanka.
The Board resolved on 27 October, 2026 to issue up to 10 million listed, rated, unsecured, redeemable three-year Bonds at a par value of Rs. 100 each, the company said. The pricing of the Bonds will be announced later.
Proceeds are intended for eligible social project categories, including MSME Value Chain Financing, MSME Climate Financing and Micro Finance directed towards women-led enterprises and female beneficiaries. The issue is subject to regulatory clearances. MSMEs are micro, small and medium enterprises.
Alliance Finance Managing Director Romani de Silva, speaking on a panel at the Orange Economy Summit 2026 in Colombo, convened by IIX with the Lanka Impact Investing Network (LIIN) and the CSE, said women accounted for around 35% of the company’s lending portfolio, a level it was not happy with. “Our intention is to get it to 50% as soon as possible. Hence the interest in issuing an Orange Bond,” he said.
De Silva said Alliance Finance mobilises about 82% of its funding from the Western Province, the country’s richest, and disburses about 72% to marginalised provinces. The North and East account for 14% of its portfolio.
The company lends mainly at market rates, while trying to keep the differential as low as possible. De Silva said funding from overseas had allowed it to unlock European Commission funds under the (European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus) initiative. These funds cover hedging costs and currency risk, cutting lending rates by 200 to 300 basis points, or 2 to 3 percentage points.
Founded in 1956, Alliance Finance became Sri Lanka’s first triple bottom line financial institution in 2012, measuring its performance on social and environmental outcomes alongside profit, De Silva said. He said the company had issued Sri Lanka’s first social Bond about a year ago. Orange Bonds were stronger, he said, in defining measurable outcomes for gender equality under the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 5.
De Silva said the company put impact first and profit after. “When you create immense value, it usually transforms into financial value as well. But you can’t do it the other way around,” he said. He added that Alliance Finance had recorded the highest stock price growth in its sector over the last five years, with a return of 521%. This was not by design, but an outcome of placing communities first,” he said.
