People's Merchant raises Rs. 186 m for Ceylinco Development Bank

People's Merchant Bank PLC (PMB) recently structured and placed Rs. 186 million in lease backed trust certificates on behalf of Ceylinco Development Bank Ltd (CDB).

These trust certificates are secured by a quality portfolio of leases and their tenure ranges from three months to one year. An attractive fixed rate of interest was attached to each trust certificate based on their respective tenures.

Monies raised through this issue will be used to further augment CDB's fund based operations and to pursue its aggressive growth strategy. The legal documentation for the issue was carried out by Messrs Nithya Partners, whilst PMB are the trustees for the issue.

This is the third placement carried out by PMB for CDB, having raised Rs. 100Mn and Rs. 200 Mn through similar issues in May 2007 and September 2007.

CDB is the development banking arm of the Ceylinco Consolidated, a leading business conglomerate in Sri Lanka with services spread over a spectrum of fee and fund based financial services including Project Financing, Business Loans, Leasing, Trade Financing/Bill Discounting, Management Consultancy Services and Bancassurance.

PMB has been featured prominently in debt market transactions having structured and placed several securitisations, debenture issues and loan syndications for its clients.

Key share holders of PMB are People's Bank, Lanka Orix Leasing Company, Galleon International Master Fund SPC Limited, Lionhart Investments Limited and South Bridge Capital Investments (Sri Lanka) Limited.