#5 SANDAMINI PERERA
CO-FOUNDER & DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON, Prime Lands Group
Most companies would have avoided the troubled Ceylinco grameen microfinance firm when it became insolvent as a trickle-down effect from the collapse of some unregulated financial institutions in the Ceylinco Group.
However, where most others saw a white elephant, the real-estate firm Prime Lands Group saw an opportunity. The group was shopping for a finance company license when the Central Bank offered it the troubled microfinance firm in 2011. For Prime Lands, the 10-year old microfinance firm’s experienced team and established infrastructure trumped its negative net worth. Rebranded Prime Grameen and bolstered by a Rs1.1 billion capital infusion, the company won customer confidence by lifting the moratorium on withdrawals. In early months, the bank was losing around Rs50 million monthly. Simultaneously, the bank introduced new financial products, which found a ready market with the more than 3,000 unsecured depositors who had been allowed to withdraw the money they thought they had lost.
They were now willing to trust the new management and do business with them. Prime Lands also settled the outstanding salaries of the firm’s employees, granted a minimum 25% increment and paid out bonuses, gaining a loyal employee group. Synergies from Prime Lands’ reputation as a real estate firm contributed to the success of Prime Grameen.
Prime Lands also built on the firm’s microfinance Grameen model, and over three years under their management provided more than Rs 15 billion in collateral-free loans to around 175,000 women entrepreneurs. In August 2014, the group sold a 51% stake in Prime Grameen to HNB, a commercial bank, for Rs660 million. Prime Grameen’s asset base has risen to Rs 6 billion and fixed deposits to Rs3.3 billion.
Another of the real estate-focused group’s diversifications has been an entry into the housing construction market in 2005. While there were many players in the high-luxury housing market, the group saw a potent gap in middleincome housing. Through a subsidiary, Prime Homes it offered residences ranging in price from Rs6 million to around Rs10 million. Now the group has moved into affordable housing at a price range of Rs3 million to Rs4 million. The firm has identified this market as its focus for the immediate future.
The group’s real estate ventures also continue. Active in 16 districts, it has completed more than 1,000 real estate projects to date. It is currently marketing over 270 land projects and targets Rs25 billion in revenue by 2020. It is also entering the hotel industry and is currently building a hotel in Yala.