MOTOR
ComBank, Sathosa Motors offer special deals on Isuzu lorries
A range of benefits including discounts on the purchase price,
competitive lease rentals, special insurance packages and value-added
services are now available to buyers of Isuzu Motor Lorries leased via
the Commercial Bank of Ceylon.
Ravi Dias – Chief Operating Officer of Commercial Bank
C(fifth from right) and Tilak Dias Gunasekera – Executive
Director Sathosa Motors PLC exchanging the agreement. (From
left) Saman Kalansuriya – Chief Manager, Leasing and
Personal Loans and Nugent Kapuwatte – Head of Leasing and
Personal Loans of Commercial Bank Thejani Kodituwakku –
Finance Manager and Neomal Fernando – Marketing Manager of
Sathosa Motors and S Renganathan – Deputy General Manager
Personal Banking, Marion Abeywardene – Deputy General
Manager Corporate Banking, Carmalita de Silva – Assistant
General Manager Corporate Banking and Vimal Fernando –
Assistant General Manager Personal Banking of Commercial
Bank look on. |
A recent agreement between the Bank and Sathosa Motors PLC, which
paved the way for this offer, envisages the provision of a discount of
Rs 50,000 on the purchase price from Sathosa Motors for each Isuzu Motor
Lorry leased via Commercial Bank. The company also offers six
“free-labour” services for buyers under the scheme.
Commercial Bank complements these benefits with competitive rentals
and special schemes for selected Isuzu Motor Lorries and will arrange
for attractive insurance cover for lessees through Commercial Insurance
Brokers, an associate of the Bank. In addition, the Bank will also
leverage its islandwide network of branches to provide a speedy service
to lessees.
“Recent policy changes encouraging ownership of motor lorries, make
this offer an extremely timely one. Many who aspired to acquire high
quality Isuzu vehicles will now find them within their reach,”
Commercial Bank Head of Leasing and Personal Loans Nugent Kapuwatte,said.
“This offer also represents Commercial Bank’s continuing commitment
to add value to customers of its leasing products by entering into
agreements that increase benefits to customers, and to provide an
impetus to the country’s rapid development,” he said.
Established in 1962, Sathosa Motors has succeeded in strengthening
its reputation in the commercial truck segment with its brand of Isuzu
commercial, heavy duty and light duty vehicles and pick up trucks.
The Isuzu brand has always been one that commands strong consumer
loyalty whilst also enjoying the position as market leader in the local
truck market. Worldwide, Isuzu is filling a significant role as a
manufacturer of commercial vehicles, light commercial vehicles and
diesel engines from Japan.
Sathosa Motors is the sole-agent for Isuzu trucks in Sri Lanka.
Commercial Bank is one of the leading leasing service providers in the
country and is a member of the Leasing Association of Sri Lanka. The
Bank provides leasing facilities for a range of assets of diverse values
including machinery.
Established in 1969, Commercial Bank is the largest private bank in
Sri Lanka, and the only Sri Lankan Bank listed in the world’s Top 1,000
Banks. It operates a network of 213 service points in Sri Lanka and the
country’s single largest network of 500 ATMs.
The Bank has been adjudged ‘Best Bank in Sri Lanka’ for 13
consecutive years by ‘Global Finance’ Magazine and has won multiple
awards as the country’s best bank from ‘The Banker,’ ‘FinanceAsia,’
‘Euromoney’ and ‘Trade Finance’ magazines.
Indonesia’s car market takes the fast lane
Automakers from Japan to India are eyeing a bonanza in Indonesia,
Southeast Asia’s largest economy where a newly wealthy middle class are
splashing out on cars like never before.
With the economy growing at a brisk 6.5 percent a year, more
Indonesians are climbing into the middle class, hungry for cars and
other status symbols their newfound wealth affords.
It is welcome news for automakers who, starved of sales in the ailing
economies of Europe and the United States, are now circling Southeast
Asia’s fastest-growing major economy.
Last year, Indonesians bought 890,400 cars and this year they are
expected to snap up around 940,000, according to a report by business
research group Frost & Sullivan.
“Indonesia has overtaken Thailand as the largest automotive market”
in the Asia Pacific region, the report said.
This year “will witness the launch/facelift of around 25-30 new
models in Indonesia that will further increase the sales volumes
growth,” it added.
The strong sales represent something of a gold rush for the industry,
and automakers are sinking funds into new factories and showrooms to tap
the money flooding the market.
“Last year, foreign automakers pledged to invest nearly $2 billion in
Indonesia over the next few years. This year, we will see the
realisation of those promises,” Budi Darmadi, an industry ministry
director, told AFP.
Japanese manufacturers, who already hold 90 percent of the market,
are leading the way.
Toyota has a second production plant in the pipeline, Suzuki is
planning to open its third and Nissan is spending $250 million to expand
existing facilities.
Toyota, trying to hang on to its 35 percent market share, wants to
boost production from 110,000 last year to 180,000 by 2013.
Gunadi Sindhuwinata, a commissioner at Jakarta-based Suzuki Indomobil
Motor said his company is planning a two-year, $800 million investment
in Indonesia.
Buoyed by soaring sales last year, automakers are confident the trend
will continue.
Nissan’s annual sales surged by 50 percent last year, and Suzuki’s by
a third.
US automakers Ford and General Motors -- and even India’s Tata group
-- are also jockeying for profits.
Ford, the second-largest US automaker, sold twice as many cars in
Indonesia last year as it did the year before and wants to repeat the
feat in 2012.
The company opened seven new dealerships nationwide last year, and
plans to add eight more this year.
General Motors, meanwhile, is investing $150 million to reopen a
mothballed plant in West Java to begin producing minivans, in hot demand
among Indonesians.
Meanwhile, Indian automaker Tata Motors says it is “crystallising its
plans” for Indonesia, where it is not yet present.
“We have chosen Indonesia because we believe that customers in
Indonesia would appreciate the vehicles that we market,” spokesman
Debasis Ray told AFP from the company’s Indian headquarters.
Last year Indonesia overtook Thailand in car sales after the Thai
economy was devastated by floods. But experts say it still has a long
way before outdoing Thailand as an auto manufacturing hub.
Thailand, where factories roll out cars for more than 200 export
markets, is often referred to as the “Detroit of Asia.” Despite its
galloping economy, Indonesia is snarled with red tape, corruption,
nearly non-existent infrastructure and traffic gridlock.
At least 1,000 new vehicles are added every day to the streets of
Jakarta, where some eight million cars crawl through one of Asia’s worst
traffic jams every day, according to private and government studies.
In 2014, according to the private Indonesian Transportation Society
which includes academics and bureaucrats, traffic in Jakarta will become
totally gridlocked.
“Jakarta has major challenges in managing mobility,” Frost & Sullivan
said in its report. |