AFC income up

Alliance Finance Company PLC recorded Rs 1.33 billion as total income which shows 38 percent growth for the financial year ended March 31, 2009.Alliance Finance Chairman and Joint Managing Director Pratapkumar de Silva said Profit before loan losses and provisions increased by 13 percent to Rs 112.4 million.

The volatile and deteriorating economic conditions made it prudent to increase the provision for loan losses to Rs 35.5 million. The operating profit before tax for the year was Rs 70.6 million.

He said that the macroeconomic conditions had direct impact on the financial services industry in Sri Lanka. In an effort to stabilize the financial markets and also boost the investor confidence, the Central Bank intervened and took management control of some of the troubled institutions. This was a most trying time for the industry.

Deputy Chairman and Joint Managing Director Romani de Silva said the company's interest income rose by 45 percent to Rs 1.16 billion. Overall net interest income rose by Rs 19.6 million to reach Rs. 274 million. Net profit for the year was Rs 61.5 million.

He said the company was able to maintain its credit quality above the industry average and record a NPL ratio of 3.80 percent as at March 2009. The company continued successfully to increase total deposits for the year by Rs 765 million. With this the company's deposit base surpassed the milestone of Rs. 3 billion.

He also said that with the anticipated improvement of the economic fundamentals the company is now changing its strategy from one of survival to one of growth.