CB grants approval in principle to issue finance business licence to Ravi Wijeratne-controlled SMB Leasing

The Monetary Board of the Central Bank (CB) has granted approval in principle to issue a finance business licence to Ravi Wijeratne-controlled SMB Leasing PLC, upon settling the depositors’ liabilities and purchasing assets worth of Rs.425.32 million of the defunct finance company.
“…the Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka has granted in principle approval to issue a finance business licence to SMB Leasing PLC, upon SMB Leasing PLC completing the payoff of public deposits and purchase of certain assets of a finance company, at a value of Rs.425,322,569.49, under the Master Plan for Consolidation of Non-Bank Financial Institutions of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka,” SMB Leasing announced in a disclosure filing with the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE), yesterday.
SMB Leasing PLC is a specialised leasing company established in 1992. Following a recent rights issue, Wijeratne became the controlling shareholder of the firm.
Meanwhile, the CB officials noted that the agreement between the CB and SMB Leasing is in line with the CB’s ongoing programme of reviving the defunct finance companies  as well as consolidation of the NBFI sector.

Over the past few years, six finance companies became defunct. They were:  Central Investments and Finance Limited (CIFL), The Standard Credit Finance Limited (TSCFL), TKS Finance Limited (TKSFL), The Finance Company PLC (TFC), ETI Finance Limited (ETIFL) and Swarnamahal Financial Services PLC (SFSP).
The CB officials said that they expect the capital infusion to SMB Leasing to be completed shortly. 
Recently, the CSE inquired from SMB Leasing on “unusual trading activities” of the company’s share on multiple times. However, the company responded that there was no market-sensitive information withheld from the public, while noting that it wasn’t aware of what led to the unusual trading activities.