Cash Flow

June 02, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka's The Finance Company (TFC) cash flows have turned positive after a run on deposits in early 2009 and its real estate business has returned to profitability on higher sales, a senior official "The company has returned to normal and has a positive cash flow now," Kamal Yatawara, chief executive at The Finance told LBO on the sidelines of its 70th anniversary celebrations.

"We have a (cash) inflow of 700 million (rupees) a month of which 300 million goes out as interest payments and another 250 million goes out as capital payments."

However Yatawara said the company still has not reached the level of financial stability to pay all its depositors' capital payments at once.

"Deposits have gone up to 100 million rupees per month," Yatawara said.

Property Business

Yatawara also said TFC's real estate business has returned to profitability.

The real estate arm brings in 40 percent of TFC's business, while the hire purchase unit contributes the rest, Yatawara said.

TFC has over 4.5 billion rupees invested in real estate assets, Yatawara said.

He said most of TFC's 4,500 blocks of land are situated out of Colombo and in some selected suburban areas