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Seylan Merchant Bank (SMB), an important niche player in the local merchant banking and leasing sectors, plans to enlarge its shareholder base and increase its issued capital through an initial public offering of non-voting shares.

Shareholder approval for this issue was obtained at an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on March 8, following approval from the Central Bank.

The Deputy Chairman of SMB Rohan Senanayake said: "As we consolidate our position in the market, SMB is looking to further improve its capital adequacy to conform to the prudential norms set out by the Central Bank.

This strengthening would result in us being able to offer our shareholders better returns on their investments."

SMB, which has an authorised share capital of Rs 6 billion currently has approximately 8,000 ordinary (voting) shareholders. The issued share capital of the company stood at Rs 445.03 million as at December 31, 2005.

In results released to the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) recently, the Seylan Merchant Bank Group reported healthy growth in net income, interest income and lease rental receivables, for the year ending December 31, 2005. Net income recorded an increase of Rs 111.10 million to reach Rs 810.82 million, a growth of 15.88 per cent over the previous year. Interest income of the Group grew by 22.35 percent to Rs 710.91 million in 2005 from Rs 581.07 million earned in 2004.

Lease rental receivables for the period rose to Rs 2.85 billion from Rs 2.39 billion, an increase of 19.27 per cent. A company with a clearly stated view to providing its customers greater convenience, SMB has introduced a unique facility where prospective customers can view photographs of vehicles and land sites available for sale, along with detailed specifications and features and reserve the item of theirs with an online payment.

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