June 1, 2013, 6:20 pm


by Maheen Senanayake

Richard Pieris Arpico Finance Limited (RPAFL) launched its services on Friday at a ceremony and press briefing at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel.

Starting with an initial equity of Rs. 400 million and a possible subsequent top up, the venture is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Richard Pieris Group.

"This was a no brainer,'' said flamboyant Sena Yaddehige, Chairman/CEO of Richard Pieris where he is the dominant shareholder. "We were in Asia Capital, we added insurance and this was the obvious third leg of our financial table."

Competing in a field with 93 players, Richard Pieris Arpico Finance has no product differentiation with the competition. "In terms of products we have the same products that everyone has.How we do hope to differentiate is by doing things differently. We are going to be aggressive and do things better than anybody else", said K M M Jabir, Chief Executive Officer RPAFL.

Yaddehige has brought together banking and business stalwarts Prof. Lakshaman R Watawala, Dr. Anura Ekanayake, Paul Ratnayeke, Viville Perera and Ravi Liyanage on the board of directors of the new company, with plans to generate Rs. 500 million in profits in the first phase of operations.

He says this is the threshold for the group to consider itself a worthy player in a given sector.

"We are planning to build a loan portfolio of approximately Rs. 4-5 billion in the first year while consolidating operations of our first branch at Hyde Park Corner before we start expanding six to seven months later", said Jabir.

"We will have all the financial products that are offered in the market except for checking account facilities and will specially harness the synergies of the group with products such as factoring where we will provide invoice discounting facilities to suppliers of the group to start with."

"We will also have rural credit schemes which can build synergies with the growers who supply our retail chain," he added.

An emotional Yaddehige who stepped down from the head table to take on questions from the media up close and personal, momentarily stopped shooting from the hip as he became emotional saying "This hotel, should have been mine and when I lost Asia Capital I wanted to get back (to financial services). That is why this company is so important to me. Jabir, the CEO was hand picked by me."

``I have every confidence in my team that has continuously performed beyond expectations turning around companies that have come up from minus Rs. 80 million to plus Rs. 250 million. We have a team that will never be beaten."

In June 2007, Yaddehige sold 81 percent of Asia Capital which he held directly and indirectly through RPC, losing control of its insurance arm, Asian Alliance. Asia Capital held 49 percent of the insurance company.

RPC still holds 15 percent in the insurance company. Yaddehige said he had disposed of both Rockport Limited (which owns 25.63 percent of Asia Capital) and Sezeka Limited (which has 25.54 of Asia Capital) when he sold Asia Capital.

"I have residences in seven countries and my group of companies achieved management profits of Rs 4 billion during the last financial year," the flamboyant entrepreneur/inventor said.

"This is not about money. This is about making this venture a success and becoming leaders in the financial space and providing the entire value chain of financial services", he added.

According to its latest annual report, the RPC group achieved Rs. 4 billion in operational profits and earnings per share of Rs. 1.21.

During the last year the Richard Pieris share traded at a high of Rs. 14 and a low of Rs. 6.50 closing at Rs. 7.50 at year end. The share closed at Rs. 7.50 on Friday.

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a reader wrote this
I knew that Mr.Yaddahige is the inventor of Remote Starters of all Cars today and he sold the patent to Bosch of Germany. Hence his having residences in seven countries.

I do regret his action of snatching ownership of Richard Pieris& Co from the original family. He could have started a new firm and earned the plaudits.

Inspite of his  discovery ,he is still and forever ,will be ignored by every Sri Lankan for his treachery

So tragic for an outstanding person. Money does not count for everything.