Sampath Leasing and Factoring maintains growth

Sampath Leasing and Factoring Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of Sampath Bank PLC has completed another year recording Pre Tax Profit of Rs 232.20 m for the financial year ended December, 31, 2011.

The reported Profit after Tax (PAT) for the same period was Rs 192.39 m. This represents an increase of 51 percent in the PAT from the previous year.

The increase in absolute profits demonstrates the company’s ability to sustain its momentum of growth achieved last year.

The reported profit of the company for the 12 months ended December, 31, 2011 is the highest in its six year history., Chairman Arthur Senanayake said that “leasing industry has seen unprecedented growth levels in an economic landscape boosted by a driving economy, which have created increased demand for commercial vehicles.

This would create opportunities for the Company to make further inroads into the leasing market through innovations to the leasing industry. The Company’s strategic focus is to build its market share in a profitable niche market with its synergistic alliance with Sampath Bank”.

The Company closely aligns itself with its parent Company, Sampath Bank PLC which is the Bank with a very large regional presence. Taking cognizance of this expanding reach Managing Director of Sampath Bank PLC,Aravinda Perera, highlighted that leasing services from Sampath Leasing and Factoring Ltd could be availed from its window offices located regionally.

He said that SLFL has now reached a wider foot print by housing window offices within the Sampath Bank branch network of over 200 branches island wide.

Group Financial Officer and Executive Director of Sampath Bank PLC, Ranjith Samaranayake, said that the “success of the Company has been augmented by the significant increase in its loan book supplemented by the decline in the non-performing advances. This signifies the Company’s continued emphasis on qualitative lending”. Elaborating further on the key financial performance indicators he noted that the Company had increased its Return on Capital Employed and Return on Equity significantly.

He said that operational efficiencies have been attained judging by the low Cost to Income ratio. Recognising the need for an integrated information system the Company has

developed an in-house solution for its leasing applications, through its own group Company Sampath IT Solutions Ltd.

This is recognised as a sustainable critical success factor of the Company in its strategy of growth and expansion. This would enable the Company to improve its service levels significantly whilst expanding its geographical reach.

The size and quality of the company’s lending portfolio also improved significantly judging by the overall increase in the lending portfolio by 167percent during the year and the improvement in the non- performing advances ratio, which closed at 2.40 percent as at December, 31 2011.