Vandell FS to revive CIFL

The Depositor’s Association of Central Investments and Finance PLC (CIFL) is hopeful that there will be a settlement soon, as they not received interest on their deposits, nor have they been able to withdraw their deposits for the past three and half years.

The Association approved the appointment of Vandell Financial Services SA of Germany to revive CIFL, which is unable to repay the depositors at present.

“Vandell Financial Services has proposed to invest Rs. 5 billion in CIFL and restructure the company. This investment would come in as a Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the country and would reactivate the operations of the company,” CIFL Depositor’s Association President K. Wijayagunawardena said.

Speaking at the fourth Annual General Meeting of the CIFL Depositor’s Association held on Monday in Colombo, he said that the Association democratically selected the best option to go-ahead with the decision as it would be of immense benefit to the country.

Although it comes under the supervision of the Central Bank it was a mismanaged company and a failed financial institution. The CIFL could not settle the monthly interest and matured deposits in a regular basis from December 2012 and as of today majority of the depositors are suffering for more than 43 months. As of December 2012, the public deposit liability was stated as around Rs 3.5 billion.

- SJ