Central Finance Company PLC is one of the oldest
non-bank financial institution
A non-banking financial institution (NBFI) or non-bank financial company (NBFC) is a financial institution that does not have a full banking license or is not supervised by a national or international banking regulatory agency. NBFC facilitate b ...
s (NBFIs) in
Sri Lanka having founded in 1957. The company is listed on the
Colombo Stock Exchange
The Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) ( si, කොළඹ ව්යාපාර වස්තු හුවමාරුව, translit=Kolamba Vyapara Vasthu Huvamaruva; ta, கொழும்பு பங்கு பரிவர்த்தனை) i ...
in 1969. Brand Finance ranked the company the 28th most
valuable brand in Sri Lanka for the year 2021.
Central Finance Company was ranked 44th in the ''LMD 100'' for the fiscal year 2019/20 by ''
LMD''.
History
Central Finance Company was founded in 1957 in
Kandy
Kandy ( si, මහනුවර ''Mahanuwara'', ; ta, கண்டி Kandy, ) is a major city in Sri Lanka located in the Central Province. It was the last capital of the ancient kings' era of Sri Lanka. The city lies in the midst of hills ...
by Chandra Wijenaike.
The company was listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange in 1969.
The company acquired a 90.1 per cent stake in Isuru Leasing, a small-scale finance company based in Kandy in November 2014. This was carried out as part of the plan of consolidating the financial services sector by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
Operations
Central Finance Company is one of the licensed finance companies, authorised to accept
deposits
A deposit account is a bank account maintained by a financial institution in which a customer can deposit and withdraw money. Deposit accounts can be savings accounts, current accounts or any of several other types of accounts explained below.
...
from the public by the
Central Bank of Sri Lanka
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka ( CBSL; si, ශ්රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව, Sri Lanka Maha Bankuwa) is the monetary authority of Sri Lanka. It was established in 1950 under the Monetary Law Act No.58 of 1949 (MLA), it is a ...
.
The company's main business activities include leasing,
hire purchase
A hire purchase (HP), also known as an installment plan, is an arrangement whereby a customer agrees to a contract to acquire an asset by paying an initial installment (e.g., 40% of the total) and repaying the balance of the price of the asset pl ...
financing, deposit mobilization and providing other financial services.
The company received an A+ rating from
Fitch Ratings
Fitch Ratings Inc. is an American credit rating agency and is one of the " Big Three credit rating agencies", the other two being Moody's and Standard & Poor's. It is one of the three nationally recognized statistical rating organizations ( NRSRO ...
in 2019.
The company owns a number of subsidiaries including Central Industries PLC and Kandy Private Hospitals (Pvt) Ltd. The company also has invested in
Nations Trust Bank (owns a stake of 21.38%), Tea Smallholders Factories PLC (29.30%), and Capital Suisse Asia Ltd (24.58%).
However, the Monetary Board of Central Bank has asked both
John Keells Holdings
John Keells Holdings PLC (JKH) is one of the largest conglomerate companies in Sri Lanka. From managing hotels and resorts in Sri Lanka and the Maldives to providing port, marine fuel and logistics services to IT solutions, manufacturing of food ...
and Central Finance Company to reduce their stakes in the Nations Trust Bank to a maximum of 20% at the end of 2021 and 15% at the end of 2022.
See also
*
List of Sri Lankan public corporations by market capitalisation
References
External links
Official website
{{All Share Price Index
1957 establishments in Ceylon
Companies listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange
Financial services companies of Sri Lanka
Financial services companies established in 1957