Bartleet Group launches 'single-window' financial solutions company

The birth of new financial services powerhouse that seeks to take capital-related activities to a new paradigm and across national borders, was announced by the Bartleet Group, Sri Lanka's pioneering financial services conglomerate, yesterday.

The new entity Bartleet TransCapital (Pvt) Ltd., is an evolutionary one-stop-shop combining the services, expertise, reach and experience of several of the Group's companies in the financial services sector, offering corporate finance, stock broking, money broking, insurance, merchant banking, leasing, hire purchase, government and corporate debt trading, bond trading, margin trading, portfolio management and a host of related services through a single window.

Former Central Bank Governor A. S. Jayawardena will head the new entity as its first non executive Chairman, with Indrajith Fernando, a leading corporate sector Chartered Accountant and current President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (ICASL) serving as its first Chief Executive Officer.

The constituent companies of Bartleet TransCapital are Bartleet Financial Services Limited, Bartleet Mallory Stockbrokers (Pvt) Ltd., Bartleet Asset Management (Pvt) Ltd., Bartleet Mecklai & Roy Limited, and Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) Lanka Limited.

Announcing the incorporation of Bartleet TransCapital, Bartleet Group Chairman Eraj Wijesinghe said: "This is the natural consequence of growth and development. The constituent companies have been operating in the financial services sector for many years and have established themselves as reputed entities in their own right. The formation of Bartleet TransCapital takes our involvement in capital-related activity to the next level."

The result, Wijesinghe said, would be a first in Sri Lanka's financial services sector, a single umbrella entity that can offer corporate as well as retail clients a portfolio of services and products that encompasses the gamut of their finance-related requirements, with the advantages of greater synergy, faster service and reduced costs