Despite uncertainties and many challenges, People’s Leasing & Finance PLC has once again created history by concluding the Financial Year (FY) 2021/22 with a record-breaking profit-after-tax (PAT) of Rs.4.66 billion, the highest profit, the company has recorded ever since its inception in1996.

The PAT has witnessed a remarkable Year-on-Year growth of 15.5 percent while the Profit-Before-Tax (PBT) is recorded as Rs. 6.65 billion, representing an impressive Year-on-Year growth of 13.2 percent.

Commenting on the all-time high financial results, Chief Executive Officer Shamindra Marcelline said, “Our ground-breaking financial performance during the FY 2021/2022 is a reflection of employee commitment, alignment of strategies to address stakeholder concerns, and restatement of policies and procedures to ensure a conducive operating environment.

The year, similar to the previous year, brought daunting challenges amid the third wave of Covid-19 that weighed down the performance of the country’s macroeconomic indicators leading to a difficult environment for businesses to operate. However, as a company, we overcame these challenges and recorded historical financial performance.”
Marcelline noted that the impressive PAT is also achieved whilst ensuring the well-being of its internal staff of over 2,000, and the local community in this difficult juncture.

The company’s non-performing assets ratio witnessed a decline reflecting the efforts and resources channeled to managing credit risk and improving recoveries. Impairment charges on loans and receivables declined by 37.2 percent from Rs.1, 044 million to Rs. 656 million.

During this period, the company managed to stay above the requirements imposed by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in terms of capital and moratoria, whilst maintaining Non - Performing Loans (NPL) ratio well below the industry average.

Further, the company kept on creating value for its stakeholders throughout the year by adopting stakeholder-focused leadership that mainly targets risk management, measures to accelerate growth momentum, and strengthening policy framework.

Marcelline stated, “The outlook appears to be extremely challenging for the company. Prevailing inflationary pressure along with increased policy rates are expected to impact the loan book of the  company. To offset this impact, we would be looking at alternate avenues to generate revenue.”

 The company continued its digitalisation process throughout the year and as a part of theprocess, it launched both internal and external customer-centric applications. It has now become a key priority in going forward to drive cost efficiencies and to enhance engagement with customers.

The company remained supportive of all its customers during the financial year and provided over 38,000 customers with moratoriums worth Rs. 8.39 billion. 

Further, in line with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka directives, the company suspended vehicle seizing and rescheduled loan facilities.