Dharma Dheerasinghe to chair committee examining revival options for failed finance firms

The Monetary Board of the Central Bank has established an Advisory Committee to examine the possible revival options for the failed finance companies.

The committee comprises four eminent experts from the business sector and is chaired by Dharma Dheerasinghe, Chairman of CBC Finance Ltd, former Chairman of Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC and former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

The other members are Sujeewa Mudalige, Managing Partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Tishan Subasinghe, Managing Director of Moore Stephens Consulting (Pvt.) Ltd and Thiyagarajah Dharmarajah, Senior Partner Audit and Assurance of Amerasekera & Company, Chartered Accountants.

Dr. Ranee Jayamaha, Appointed Member of the Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, will serve as Advisor to the committee while J.P.R. Karunaratne, Assistant Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, would serve as Secretary to the committee.

The Monetary Board has vested the committee with the responsibility of recommending possible revival options for five failed finance companies, of which the licences have been either suspended or cancelled as to date.

Those companies are Central Investment & Finance Ltd, ETI Finance Ltd, TKS Finance Ltd, The Finance Company PLC and The Standard Credit Finance Ltd.

The committee is expected to conduct an independent assessment of the present financial condition of the five distressed companies, conduct due diligence covering financial, legal, tax and other important areas of operations, assess the financial conditions of the entities after incorporating the necessary adjustments as per the findings of due diligence and also examine possible revival options for each entity, indicating advantages and disadvantages. If, however reviving a particular entity does not seem feasible, the committee may recommend liquidation of the said entity.