Outgoing Sampath Bank bosses buoyant on future:

Biggest challenge was saving it from closure - Chairman

Ravi LADDUWAHETTY

Both outgoing Sampath Bank PLC Chairman Edgar Gunatunga and Managing Director / CEO Anil Amerasuriya who retire from their posts at the end of this month, are buoyant about the bank’s future, claiming that it will be a top rung bank.

Gunatunga told Daily News Business yesterday that the biggest challenge of his 55 year old banking career was to help restructuring Sampath Bank from collapsing and said that the bank had a buoyant future Amarasuriya said that the biggest challenge of his banking career was the restructuring of Union Bank.

Gunatunge retired from Commercial Bank in 1991 as Managing Director after an illustrious career, where he joined as a junior clerk and rose to be the Managing Director.

At the request some institutional shareholders and the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and Directors of the relatively young Sampath Bank, he was persuaded to join Sampath Bank as the Managing Director cum Deputy Chairman.

The reason for CBSL to get Edgar Gunatunge to take the post at Sampath was to stabilise the young bank and stop the run on its deposits.

He introduced far reaching changes, policies and procedures which streamlined the new Bank’s operations. He brought in new customers and helped build entrepreneurs into big corporate names He was instrumental in getting the Bank to buy a Head Office building under a separate subsidiary.

In 2000, Gunatunge continued to be the Chairman when Sampath Bank went through an attempted hostile takeover of the Bank, by business magnate Harry Jayawardena. With the failure of the attempted takeover of Sampath, Edgar guided Sampath to set up/acquire subsidiaries in stock brokering, leasing and IT areas.

Harry Jayawardena was not accustomed to the Sampath Bank culture and his take over bid failed and he pulled out,” Gunatunga mused.

During the period Sampath acquired at 30% stake in former Vanik Bangladesh, by buying up the stake owned by Vanik Incorporation Ltd. This Company in Bangladesh which is a credit card issuer and leasing company, was provided technical assistance and management expertise by Sampath Bank.

This helped the Company which was re-named as “Lanka Bangla Finance Ltd “, to become very profitable. This company is now listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange.

A few months after the collapse of Pramuka Bank, when Union Bank of Colombo Ltd was having difficulties, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and shareholders of Union Bank of Colombo, requested Gunatunage to help avoid Union Bank collapsing.

Among his lifetime cornerstones was to help re-structure Union Bank, whereby Sampath gained a 24% equity of Union Bank at the time of re-structure. Both Gunatunga and Sampath now see their efforts have borne fruit and now Union Bank is a viable and strong Bank.

Anil Amarasuriya joined the Bank in May 1989. He was promoted as General Manager /CEO in April 1999 and subsequently appointed Managing Director/ CEO in July 2000.

Figures of the Bank under his stewardship speak for themselves. Pre tax profit increased from Rs 535 Million to Rs 2.2 Billion, deposits from Rs 24.6 Billion to 102.9 Billion and advances from Rs 26.6 Billion to Rs 97.4 Billion. The branch network increased from 38 to 111. He was mainly responsible for putting in place several IT related products.

One of the significant achievements was his strong recommendation for the Bank to invest in LankaBangla Finance Ltd. The investment of Rs 146 Million therein is currently valued at approx Rs 3 Billion.

It was through Amarasuriya’s efforts that Sampath Bank was able to resurrect Union Bank of Colombo which was in difficulties. In addition to his responsibilities in the Group he held directorships in several financial related institutions.