MullenLowe launches second agency LoweLintas
Sri Lanka recently launched its sister agency LoweLintas which will now come under the MullenLowe Group - Sri Lanka. Both entities hail from the same bloodline in brand communications - Lintas.
Lintas is a global creative powerhouse which counts 120 years in advertising and has been operating under the name Lowe Worldwide since the year 2000. It then assumed the new name MullenLowe in 2015 following a merger with the US network Mullen. Consequent to this merger, the Sri Lankan operations too joined the more than 90 other offices in 65 countries to adopt this name and identity, the agency’s Sri Lanka office said in a public announcement.
In just four years, MullenLowe Sri Lanka assumed group status incorporating LoweLintas as its sister agency. The two will operate independent of each other. In addition to these verticals, the MullenLowe group relaunched its brand activation and public relations arms as LoweActive and LowePublic respectively. It also formalised its specialist digital arm as an expert offering with the launch of LoweDigital.
The new agency and all its verticals will operate from its smartly furbished premises at No. 3 1/1, Austin
Place, Colombo 8 while MullenLowe will continue to operate from No. 125, Kynsey Road, Colombo 7, it said.
Commenting on the formation of the MullenLowe Group - Sri Lanka and its five independent ve r t i c a l s , Thayalan Bartlett, CEO, MullenLowe Group Sri Lanka said, “There is no better time to boldly invest in our beliefs than when the economy is not at its best. This is our small contribution to bring about optimism with purpose for Sri Lanka and our clients. In conditions such as these, marketers want their brands to be brave and we have been an agency known to respond to this call. We have upped our offering by Hyperbundling our areas of expertise to meet the challenges of our times."
Seylan Bank closed the nine months ending 30th September 2019 with a post-tax profit of Rs. 2,554 million, a marginal increase of 1 per cent over the corresponding period last year.
Growth in advances coupled with the rise in interest rates enabled interest income to grow by 16.77 per cent and interest expenses increased by 22.28 per cent. As a result, net interest income recorded a growth of 7.20 per cent to reach Rs. 13,987 million, the bank said in an announcement.
Net fees and commission income recorded a slight growth of 4.54 per cent for the period under review. This was mainly attributed to card related income and guarantee related income during the period under review.
Other income comprising net losses from trading activities, net fair value gains of financial instruments, net gains on foreign exchange transactions and other operating income were reported as a net gain of Rs. 1,144 million compared to net gain of Rs. 1,008 million in 3Q 2018 mainly as a result of upward movement in exchange income, despite a decrease in Mark to Market gains on Derivatives Financial Instruments.
Total expenses increased by 8.68 per cent from Rs. 8,885 million to Rs. 9,657 million and were fuelled by new investments in technology where the focus is given to enhance the digital banking services and upgrading and refurbishment of branches/head office departments. The bank said it continued to focus on widening the roll-out of lean initiatives, workflow methods and automation across the bank operations in order to keep the cost under control.
Profit before taxes (PBT) was negatively impacted by the debt repayment levy of Rs. 706 million for the nine months ended September 2019 which was not in existence in the corresponding period of 2018. The bank reported a credit growth of 7.75 per cent increasing the advances from Rs. 327 billion to Rs. 352 billion while the deposit base grew from Rs. 358 billion to Rs. 377 billion during the nine months ended 30th September 2019. The Gross NPA (Net of IIS) Ratio stood at 6.73 per cent as at 30th September 2019.
In just four years, MullenLowe Sri Lanka assumed group status incorporating LoweLintas as its sister agency.