Lankan Alliance Finance Ltd becomes Alliance Finance PLC

Lankan Alliance Finance Ltd has changed its name to Alliance Finance PLC, according to a notice of the central bank.    

It came nearly a week after the Bangladesh Bank directed non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) to complete legal procedures in order to replace their company suffix "Limited" with PLC.

In Bangladesh, companies are switching to the PLC (Public Limited Company) suffix in order to comply with the amended Company Act 1994. The amendment was made in 2020.

A PLC is a public company and is the equivalent of a US publicly traded company that carries the Inc. or corporation designation.

The use of the PLC abbreviation after the name of a company communicates to investors and to anyone dealing with the company that it is a publicly traded corporation.

As per the amendment, NBFIs would have to change the Memorandum of Association and the Articles of Association in order to assume the PLC suffix, said the BB in another notice on May 24.

Lankan Alliance Finance has also dropped the word "Lankan" from its name.

Explaining, Kanti Kumar Saha, chief executive officer of Alliance Finance, said it has changed the name in order to remove confusion as there is another non-bank financial institution in the country having Lanka in its name.

"But there is no change in the ownership structure. We have only changed the name of the company."

Sri Lanka has 51 per cent shareholding in Alliance Finance while local investors hold the rest.

Currently, 35 NBFIs are operating in Bangladesh while the maiden one was established in 1981.

In February, the central bank gave permission to banks to complete legal procedures to add PLC as a suffix.