The Board of Directors of TKS Finance Limited has successfully completed its Rights Issue, raising total proceeds of Rs109.0 million on October 6, 2018.
With the completion of the Rights Issue, the Stated Capital of the company is now Rs 1.01 billion. The major shareholder of the Company, Tiong King Sing, had fully subscribed to his entitlement of the rights issue and the balance of the rights was taken up by new investors of the company.
At the same time, the company has appointed Abdul Azim Mohd Zabidi, as the Independent Chairman of the company, which appointment has been duly approved by the Central Bank (CBSL) with effect from October 1, 2018. The Board of Directors of TKS Finance Ltd is confident that the new Chairman of the Company, Azim will take steps to turn around the performance of the company to ensure the profitability of the Company through implementing effective methods for recovery of the non-performing loans of the Company and better quality lending moving forward. In addition, the issue of the core capital requirement of the Company will be addressed accordingly.
Currently, the major shareholder is exploring a merger with another finance company in Sri Lanka and preliminary discussions are underway.
The merger, subject to CBSL’s approval, will put the company on a firmer footing in terms of core capital to face the challenges faced by financial institutions in Sri Lanka. This move is also in line with the directive from CBSL.
The company said that any further developments in this area will be announced at a later stage. At the same time the major shareholder is committed to inject additional capital to the company to ensure that the company duly complies with the CBSL Core Capital requirement.
The company was also accorded a (SL) B- (Stable) rating by ICRA Lanka Limited. This rating was indeed welcome news to all stakeholders of the Company. The report showed and confirmed that the Company is fundamentally stable, despite being a late entrant into the highly saturated finance industry.
The Board of Directors of the company is confident that the company will be able to overcome the various obstacles with the support and commitment of the major shareholder, Dato’ Tiong King Sing, and the support from the Board of Directors and Management.