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| Sunday, 25 May 2003 |
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Island-wide programme to build houses Homes for All, an island-wide programme to build houses, stimulate the local construction industry, and provide employment especially in rural areas, was launched by the National Housing Development Authority (NHDA) and Holcim (Lanka) Ltd. A Memorandum of Understanding in this regard was signed at a media conference last week by the NHDA and Holcim (Lanka) with the support of strategic partners, Institute for Construction Training and Development, National Building Research Organisation, Sri Lanka Land Reclamation and Development Corporation and Reel Estate Exchange (Pvt) Ltd. The project, to be financially supported by the Housing Development Finance Corporation, will act as a focal point to mobilise and coordinate the intellectual, infrastructural, human and financial resources available within all partner organisations. "Housing promotion programmes such as 'Diri Piyasa' and the Plantation Housing Programme launched by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Minister of Housing and Plantation Infrastructure Arumugam Thondaman provide the ideal platform for this project," said Major General Sarath Munasinghe, Chairman NHDA. This project will help ease unemployment by training interested people to take up house building. The reconstruction of 300,000 houses in plantations will take place under the project. Insurance Corporation in partnership with ING Group ING Financial Institutions' Institutional and Government Advisory unit (ING-IGA) and Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation Ltd (SLICL) have forned a technical support partnership under which ING-IGA will provide technical and management advisory services to SLICL over a three-year period. Phase one of the project will consist of a strategic and operational review of the SLICL's Life and General insurance businesses and will focus on overall strategic direction, commercial management and distribution of its insurance products, operations, IT, financial management, management information systems, internal audit, actuarial functions and investment management. The scope of the overall project will be determined following the outcome of this review but will include the transfer of ING's knowledge and expertise in these areas and will include the secondment of senior management from ING. ING Group is a global financial institution of Dutch origin, active in the field of banking, insurance and asset management in 60 countries with more than 115,000 employees. ING-IGA is an independent advisory unit of the ING Group, founded in 1989, specialising in bank advisory services, pension and insurance-related advisory work for private sector financial institutions and multilateral organisations. To date ING-IGA has successfully completed nearly 100 projects in more than 40 countries. HNB credit facility for Senkadagala Finance Hatton National Bank (HNB) has announced the disbursement of a Rs. 200 million credit facility to Senkadagala Finance Company Limited (SFCL) through the securitisation of lease receivables. The securitisation transaction was structured by the Corporate Finance Division of HNB. The structure allows SFCL the flexibility to utilise the facility in tranches as necessitated by its borrowing requirements up to a total discounted value of Rs. 200 million. The funds disbursed through each tranche will carry a maturity of up to four years and repayments have been structured to match the cash flows from securitised leases. Based in Kandy, SFCL has seen rapid growth in its balance sheet size since opening branches in Kurunegala and Negombo in addition to its established branches in Colombo and Kandy. The proceeds from the securitisation will support the entry of SFCL into the lucrative corporate leasing market. The company has traditionally funded asset growth through customer deposits. The securitisation will allow it to diversify its funding mix while significantly reducing the maturity mismatch inherent in the industry by matching its borrowings with the maturity period of leases. SFCL is currently the only finance company in Sri Lanka to receive a credit rating. The SL BBB credit rating assigned to SFCL from Fitch Ratings Lanka is creditable for a small finance company. |
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