First Capital Equities changes its name to First Guardian

First Capital Equities changed its name officially to First Guardian Equities on November 14 . This comes following the exit of debt specialist First Capital Ltd (FCL)from the stock brokering business. FCL’s 40% stake was purchased by Dawi Investment Trust; Ranjan Hulugalle an existing director of the company and Lakdasa Hulugalle, a Geneva based, former UN Economist.

First Guardian Equities (FGE) has set its sights on being the most admired company in Sri Lanka’s equity market, focusing on pleasing customers with their service, research and technology. Three of the original investors in the company, the Hirdaramani Group the high net worth New York based Sri Lankan Raj Rajaratnam of the Galleon Hedge Fund, and Guardian Equity have remained as shareholders and backers.

Under the new structure B.R.L. Fernando-Deputy Chairman Commercial Bank and CEO of the CIC Group of companies, Ranil Pathirana-Finance Director of several companies of the Hirdaramani Group, will continue to extend their services while prominent figures of the corporate world are to join the board in the future.

The First Guardian Equities team is driven by Managing Director and CEO Rohan Goonewardene, and Ranjan Hulugalle, a US-based Sri Lankan lawyer and president of Hulugalle Capital, a Las Vegas based fund management company.

“The company has currently planned out new strategies to take the company forward “through innovation and being the first to deliver customer focused, research and investment methods whilst maintaining the highest level of discipline and integrity thus being ‘a true guardian of our client’s funds.” – Mr. Goonewardene said.