NDB helps Sri Lankan company’s regional expansion
View(s):LTL Holdings group (LTL), one of Sri Lanka’s leading engineering conglomerates, which commissioned its first thermal power plant ‘Raj Lanka Power Company Limited’ in Bangladesh last month also involved the NDB Group’s entry into financing a Sri Lankan project overseas.
It was handled by the bank’s Project & Infrastructure Financing Department and Investment Banking units.
An NDB statement said that due to the competitive bidding process, LTL had to work with very thin margins in making this 
project successful. “NDB Group’s investment banking units in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, NDB Investment Bank and NDB Capital, structured an innovative product for fund raising in the Bangladeshi capital markets which ultimately reduced the cost of local currency borrowing for the project. The remainder of the project’s debt component was financed via a USD loan syndicated from the Sri Lankan banking sector with NDB committing $12 million. Both NDB Investment Bank and NDB Capital skillfully facilitated this financing arrangement despite the complications stemming from the dual jurisdictions and multiple financiers of the project. LTL has already commenced work on their second power plant investment in Bangladesh and NDB is actively working towards being a significant partner in this project as well,” the statement said.
CEO of NDB Group’s investment banking cluster, Vajira Kulatilaka said that “When we started operations in Bangladesh, one of our main objectives was to facilitate off-shore expansions of Sri Lankan corporates. Today I’m delighted to say that we have been successful in achieving this goal”.