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| Sunday, 7 August 2005 |
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Sustainable growth - aim of NDB and NDB Bank merger by Don Asoka Wijewardena The business merger of the NDB and NDB Bank focuses on single entity, legal name and branding and the rationale of the merger was funding, ownership and world class competition. The merger integrates the separate and distinctive strength of the bank into a single entity which will provide holistic financial solutions to its customers, said NDB Bank Chief Executive Officer Nihal Welikala at a media conference on Business Merger of NDB and NDB Bank at the Jaic Hilton last week. Welikala said that the NDB commercial bank with an asset base of over Rs. 60 billion would be one of the largest private sector commercial banks and the merger was expected to benefit not only NDB Bank's customers but also its employees and shareholders as well. Referring to structural changes of the merger, Welikala said that the main objective of the merger was sustainable growth of all stakeholders, shareholders, customers, depositors and employees with an effective formulation of strategies based on sustained economic growth, new demands, corporate SME customers, increasing consumer prosperity, demographics and aging population. Referring to the job security of the employees, Welikala said that some employees were in despair over the merger but he assured that no employee would be made redundant as a result of the merger. He also said that the key factor seen in similar business models was that they developed and implemented forward-looking business strategies, and anticipated rather than reacted to policy and economic changes at home and abroad and added that the decision to merge came in the wake of Sri Lanka's financial position regionally where Sri Lanka's banking penetration was relatively low. "The merger enables NDB Bank to now reach more customers with competitively priced services whilst retaining high levels of services," Welikala said. Deputy CEO Eran Wickremaratne said that the NDB Bank would provide customers everything from corporate banking, SME banking and retail banking while providing insurance, housing, imvestment banking and stock brokering services through its subsidiaries including the services of Eagle Insurance. Wickremaratne said that NDB Bank's major competitors were predominantly commercial banks and it would not move away from project finance which was commercially viable by cross selling other financial projects. He said that NDB Bank was a key player in the country's economic development as its experience of working with almost every sector at every level had made NDB the No. 1 development partner in almost every industry. According to Wickremaratne, building on its superior expertise in project finance, NDB Bank has been able to provide financial and consultancy services to a broad spectrum of local industries ranging from micro, through small and medium, to the largest infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka. Through the years NDB has grown to become a leading player in
project-based finance helping to fund over 35,000 projects worth Rs.120
billion through its branches across the country. |
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