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Ratwatte’s Entrust: Another huge gamble that failed
View(s):The collapse of Entrust Securities, a primary money market dealer run by the family of former Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte has triggered unpleasant memories of the infamous Ceylinco debacle, and came after the company’s political benefactors disappeared from the scene.
The organisation, in which Chanuka Ratwatte, son of former cabinet minister, the late Anuruddha Ratwatte, is said to have had a sizable stake, came under the management of the National Savings Bank on a Central Bank directive this week after it failed to beat the deadline to submit a plan to meet its debts. This week, Entrust closed its website as well.
The CB says the liabilities of the failed company can be as high as Rs. 6 billion while its assets are nowhere that figure.
Eventually it’s the taxpayers’ money — like in the case of finance companies and institutions that failed under the Ceylinco umbrella including Golden Key — that would be used to settle depositors and small shareholders (900 at Entrust), bankers said.
See Business Times for full coverage of the Entrust drama