Swarnamahal Financial Services PLC (SFS), a registered finance company from the ETI and Swarnamahal Group, is establishing a Gold ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) and Commodities Exchange aimed at attracting and weaning away investors from the lucrative stock-market.
The development is also aimed at providing investment options to people in the North and East.
The firm hopes to launch the Gold fund when the necessary legal framework as well as the commodities exchange is ready along with regulatory approvals, according to SFS Director Nalaka Edirisinghe in an interview with the Business Times.
SFS currently operates three branches in Jaffna, Vavuniya and Trincomalee and another branch will be opened in Batticaloa soon. He said that this process will provide effective medium-term funding which in turn allows a very attractive medium term return to the investors. The company’s deposit base has swelled upto Rs.3.5 billion and the number of depositors to 7,000.
SFS along with its sister company ETI Investments is considered to have the largest gold stock among finance companies on account of pawn broking/lending. SFS, a registered finance company, is part of a jewellery retail brand, Swarnamahal Jewelers.
Mr Edirisinghe said the company plans to contribute its share for the development of the North and East by identifying the much needed financial solutions of the community. SFS offers financial solutions for both individual and corporate customers by taking into account, how best they can be served, as a finance company offering a full range of financial services including, fixed deposits, saving accounts, pawning services, leasing and hire purchase.
SFS recently announced its first successful private offering of an asset-backed securities issue of Rs. 167 million. The main objective of this issue was to finance new lease and hire purchase portfolios as a part of SFS’s growth strategy and to support the rapid expansion of its branch network during the year 2011/12. “Presently, the company has 18 branches and this network is rapidly expanding to strategically identified cities to reward the native community,” he revealed.
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