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| Sunday, 21 March 2004 |
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Business |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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LBF targets to reduce NPL below industry average The LB Finance under the new management and stewardship plans to increase the market share, reduce the non performing loan portflio below the industry average, expand the pawning services, introduce new products and services and train the staff to meet the needs of its customers. "We are planning to increase the market share by about 4-5 percent within the year. To achieve this we would introduce new products to help increase the deposit base and the market share,"said its Managing Director Sumith Adihetty. "The company intends to increase its fee income by venturing into stock broking, insurance broking, capital market operations, fund management and debt structuring. Primary dealership is another area we are interested and, initially we intend generating sufficient fee income, to cover the fixed costs. "At present, our NPL portfolio is around 14-15% while the industry average is around 12-15% and we are planning to reduce the NPL to about 10% by the end of the year. it is a big task but we can achieve it with the commitment of the staff and the valued customers. The company would build an empowered sales team to increase its productivity. This team would be able to take decisions over the counter as opposed to the conventional method of getting the authorisation of the manager. The company would seek the help of foreign experts to train its sales staff to cater to the needs of the customer. "Since the company is engaged in a range of activities, the staffers have the opportunity of gaining an experience in all departments which gives them a better understanding of its activities. "As the company's human resource base is experienced in all aspects related to the business, we can cater to any segment of the society, be it a small, medium or large scale entrepreneur or an individual customer who needs our services. " We would always try to understand the needs of the client and cater to him/her accordingly rather than follow the conventional method of asking for documents, to strengthen our business ties," he added.General Manager Asset Finance Niroshan Udage said that they were planning to extend the pawning operations to rural areas as well as there was much scope for expansion. Another area which the company was concentrating heavily was real estate. We had sold two lands in Nuwara Eliya and one in Thalawathugoda, while the latest project at Kotte has just begun," he added. The company is engaged in accepting fixed deposits, issuing certificate of deposits, providing lease finance, operating lease facilities, hire purchase facilities, loan facilities, issuance of guarantees, trade finance facilities, pawn broking and real estate development. Managing Director Sumith Adihetty was the former deputy Managing Director at Mercantile Investments Ltd and served as a director at several of its subsidiaries. The Executive Director Emmanuel Mutupulle was the Managing Director of LOLC prior to joining LB Finance. |
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