Financial Times

Capital Reach in JV with Begbies Traynor UK
Capital Reach Holdings (CRH), a financial services group, last week entered into a MoU with UK's largest independent business rescue and turnaround firm Begbies Traynor UK to create BT CapReach, Sri Lanka's first business rescue and turnaround service.

"The Sri Lankan economy continues to experience growth of over 5% despite many challenges. These conditions are creating good opportunities for businesses, but also posing dangerous threats to those which are under-capitalised or unsound commercially," said Ajith Nivard Cabraal, former chairman of the group, who spoke as chief guest at the launch.

Cabraal, founder of the company has resigned from all board positions in the private sector after he was appointed Secretary of the Ministry of Plan Implementation and Senior Economic Advisor to the President of Sri Lanka. His wife, Roshni Cabraal has taken over as CRH's new chairman.

Cabraal said that the banking sector too was plagued by very high levels of non performing loans (NPLs), which were 10.0% in the case of Commercial Banks and 10.9% and 9.7% for Specialized Banks and Finance Companies.
He said BT CapReach will work with these financial institutions and their borrowers to turn around struggling commercial enterprises, bringing together the local knowledge and experience of Capital Reach Holdings and the extensive business rescue and turnaround skills of the Begbies Traynor Group".

"The creation of BT CapReach will be our first joint venture in South Asia, where we hope to repeat the success of our involvement in Africa. We are committed to playing an active part in developing economies around the world by sharing our knowledge and providing experience, expertise and resources where necessary," said Senior London Partner Begbies Traynor, Nick Hood who was in Sri Lanka for the launch. "A lack of adequate professional turnaround resources has been identified as a problem in most developing economies, particularly in the South Asian region. This joint venture will work to improve this situation by providing training in the UK as well as in Sri Lanka".

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