CIFL to be a listed company with CSE

Central Investments and Finance Ltd. (CIFL), with a 45-year history, is approaching a landmark achievement in being listed at the Colombo Stock Exchange, said its delighted CEO Jayanth Wickremeratne in an interview recently.

The company, intent on expansion of usual financing business, in which too it had a unique path-finding approach for its valued clientele since coming under present Chairman, Prof. L.R. Amarasekera, has already ventured into diversification with a number of novel products and even conventional products with new approaches to meet customer needs as well as the needs of development initiatives in Sri Lanka.

CIFL has had success ful progress at leasing and hire purchase business in the conventional types, mobilising fixed deposits with unswerving customer confidence that has stood with it even during adverse economic conditions that prevailed in the recent past.

The able guidance and even assistance the Central Bank as regulator has extended have been contributory factors in the company’s successes on top of the rapport the company has built over the years with its customers.

Presently in an environment with greater opportunities for new enterprises, CIFL believes that it has a responsibility to be a partner in the process and expand partnerships to a diverse clientele.

“Our greater concentration is on the SME and micro sectors,” Wickremaratne said, adding that it needs specific care and gearing in present-day economic trends and as a responsible financial service provider, it is gradually working towards clustering all appropriate banking and financial services for these sectors, under one roof.

He said that plans were already underway to expand the micro sector portfolios to Rs. 630 million in the next two years. Towards this end, CIFL has diversified its conventional products to facilitate needs of the sectors it envisages to harness in the new environment.

In this endeavour, formal fixed deposits have been branded as ‘Mega,’ ‘Kalin Polee’ and ‘Senior Citizens’. Savings have been extended to benefit children with ‘Hero’.

Microfinance, being a major concern of the company, has taken off with two branded products, ‘Danavaruna’ and ‘Shathaka,’ designed to gear micro sector clients graduating to ‘social entrepreneurship’ with ‘Mudraa’ (or Signature Project), a product designed to give hands-on training at collective project management.

The new approach of CIFL with regard to microfinance has a holistic socioeconomic development component included, whereby not only the portfolio performance is assured but also the broader perspective of harnessing the micro sector to be partners in Sri Lanka’s growth.

Though not passionately canvassed, CIFL ‘Ran Udaana,’ the product for pledge of gold jewellery, will stand to supplement the company’s ideals of gearing Small and micro sector entrepreneurs by being available to protect them from exploitation.

CIFL will also rekindle its exposure in real estate sector with a long-term profitability concept, where it shall gradually exploit the potential through emerging opportunities in the tourism industry.

To ensure quality of its performance and transparency of its activities, the company has availed services of eminently renowned and professionally responsible personalities in Kalinga Indatissa and Lakshman Rupasinghe as Board Members since January this year.

Thus, Central Investments and Finance Ltd., the company with a high degree of responsibility towards the country, the clientele and its shareholders, is venturing into an Initial Public Offering of shares shortly with the blessings of Central Bank and is looking forward to demonstrate its expanded vision and expertise as a service provider in a broad spectrum of the country’s socioeconomic wellbeing, the CEO concluded.