Sinhaputhra Finance records 47% growth in earnings

Sinhaputhra Finance Ltd., has registered a 47% growth in post tax earnings for the first quarter ended June 30, 2005.

The post tax earnings for the quarter was Rs. 19.8 million, in comparison to Rs. 13.4 million registered for the quarter ended in 2004.

This performance is well above the forecast earnings for the quarter according to AGM (Finance and Planning), Ms. Chitrani Abeyratne.

Interest Income registered a 37% growth during the quarter and the growth in Net Interest Income was 33% for the period under review. Interest Expense and Operating Expenses have increased by 40% and 39% respectively according to her.

The significant growth in operations on finance leasing and lending was the main contributory factor for this satisfactory performance. The company registered post tax earnings of Rs. 51.8 million during the year ended March 31, 2005.

Assistant General Manager (Business Affairs), Ms. Nimalka Lokugamage said that the company registered a 44% growth in finance leasing and lending operations during the first quarter of the year.

The total volume of Finance Leasing and Lending touched Rs. 331.7 million, during the period in comparison to Rs. 229.9 million in the first quarter of 2003/2004 according to her. The company has mobilised new Public Deposits amounting to Rs. 245.2 million during the quarter which is up from Rs. 124.2 million in the first quarter of the previous year.

The total assets of the company touched Rs. 2.1 billion, in comparison to Rs. 1.5 billion, previous year.