HNB – DFCC venture ready by end March

The HNB – DFCC Investment Bank joint venture, which was to go on board last year and stalled due to approval delays by the regulator, will kick off before March 31, according to a top HNB official.

“We will go live on the March 31,” R. Theagarajah, Managing Director HNB told The Sunday Times FT.

He explained that the delay was due to the final regulatory approval from the Central Bank.

“We had got the staff models, the business model and the nitty-gritty’s sorted out, but the regulatory approvals were delayed. They came out on December 31, 2007 and now we can start our commercial operations,” he said. He said that DFCC CEO, Nihal Fonseka is tipped to be the Chairman of the new venture, while Jayantha Perera, HNB’s Head of International Banking and Business Development will be the Managing Director. “There will be equal representation of both HNB and DFCC on the director board,” Theagarajah added.

He said that the proposed Rs. 500 million joint venture investment bank will carry out the amalgamated Corporate Finance and Capital Markets businesses of the two institutions and will also be the Group Holding company for the other related entities of the two banks including the Stock Broking and Primary Dealership businesses.

He pointed out that there was enough business to get the venture off the ground. “We plan on advising good companies for getting better value for them such as portfolio management and structuring syndicate debt,” he explained.