Businessmen should forge ahead despite negative sentiments

Businessmen have to be optimistic and forge ahead with new ventures despite the negative sentiments about the country, said First Chairman Acuity Partners, General Manager and CEO, DFCC Bank, Nihal Fonseka.

He was addressing a ceremony to launch Acuity Partners (Pvt) Ltd., a joint venture investment bank of DFCC Bank and the Hatton National Bank on Thursday.

The primary objective of Acuity Partners is to be Sri Lanka’s premier investment banking group offering an unrivalled array of products and services to institutional and individual clients.

“Our intention is not to rest on the laurels of both banks but to be the premier finance and investment bank in the country,” Fonseka said.

The rationale in setting up an investment bank is to go beyond the level of operations by small entities and be a one-stop shop offering an integrated solution for businesses.

The Acuity Group will leverage on the track records of DFCC Bank and HNB and pool the skills, and expertise of both institutions. The DFCC and HNB groups have a history of over 170 years in banking, 130 years in stock broking and around 40 years in investment banking.

“We had no hesitation in launching a joint venture considering the complementary strengths of both institutions which are pioneers in the banking sector,” the Chairman said.

The Acuity Group will provide products such as corporate Finance and Advisory, Equities, Fixed income, Loan syndication and structured finance, derivatives and treasury products and capital markets.

Managing Director HNB, Rajendra Theagarajah said “we consider the competition as opportunities and not challenges. In capital lending there is no integrated solution in the country. The challenge is not to use reference but to capture new markets.”

The new venture will take on the existing Corporate Finance and Capital Market businesses of DFCC Bank and HNB.

The investment bank will also take over the Group Holding Company for the other subsidiaries of the two banks involved in the equity and debt capital markets, namely DFCC Stockbrokers (Pvt)Ltd, HNB Stockbrokers (Pvt) Ltd. and HNB Securities (Pvt) Ltd.

The combined asset base of the joint venture is Rs 322 billion. LF