Sri Lanka’s Commercial Bank of Ceylon said it will acquire Indra Finance, a finance company linked to a top vehicle retailer for Rs 870 million. Indra Finance had Rs 507 million in equity, Rs 73 million in profits and Rs 2 billion in assets.Commercial Bank group had Rs 587 billion in assets. Indra Finance does not have public deposits and is linked to Indra Traders, a top distributor of unregistered used vehicles imported mainly from Japan. Analysts say with lower cost funds from a bank, Commercial Bank could potentially gain a bigger share in around the 2,000 vehicles sold each year by Indra with leases averaging Rs 3 million. The acquisition is part of a bank and finance company consolidation process mandated by the Central Bank to reduce the amount of finance and banking companies in the country, which is expected to make the sector stronger and easier to regulate.
