In 2008, LankaBangla has been able to achieve a milestone growth in terms of business, diversification of products & services, revenues & profit, meeting & exceeding expectation of stakeholders. Steady growth & development of business has placed your company in a strong position creating an outstanding image.

The year was a significant year of operation despite political uncertainty, shaken confidence among the business community of the country, high inflation, and world wide economic crisis. The consolidated pretax profit stood at Taka 472.21 million in 2008, registering a growth of 58.25% over the previous year and the consolidated net profit after tax stood at Taka 377.64 million, indicating a growth of 79.43% over the previous year. The consolidated earnings per share during the year under review were Taka 9.81compared to previous year's Taka 5.47 up by 79.34%. The asset size of the Company at the end of the year stood at Taka 7,944.87 million marking 37.40% growth.

Driving force of our growth is customers' satisfaction. Since financial industry is facing tremendous competition & challenges, identification of customers' need & variety and development of product & services which can best serve their expectation is the only way to maintain a sustained high quality growth, we believe.

We believe that capacity building to ensure optimum contribution to the company is a vital issue. In turn, it is dependent on the professional capability of the employees, transparency in the operational policies, guidelines & availability of modern nfrastructural facilities. In 2008 we imparted a number of training to our employees, improved quality of working environment, effective remuneration & incentive system have been implemented in line with the profitability & performance standard of the employees. The human & other resources along with the business & operational processes have been restructured & re-engineered.

The world economic crisis & stiff domestic competition in the banking/financial industry is expected to make the year 2009 very challenging. In FY 2008, Bangladesh economy experienced a moderate growth rate of 6.2% against which the target level growth for FY 2009 has been set at 6.5%. International financial experts projected that the growth rate in 2009 would be lower than what has been projected due to dampened global demand could weigh on exports & remittances. World Bank projected the economic growth in 2009 would be 4.8% whereas Asian Development Bank projected at 5.5% against the target of 6.5% due to world economic melt down. However we do believe that continuation of our superior services, adoption of new products through enhancing fee based activities (providing corporate advisory services, corporate finance facilities etc.), promote home loan, increase the volume of domestic factoring, harmonious customer relationship, improvisation of skill & motivation of human resources, prudent business policies, better risk management, corporate governance system would enable us to face the challenges ahead to make another successful year of 2009. To meet the portfolio target, more deposits, both individual and institutional, will be attracted. All formalities have been completed to open a branch in Sylhet as a part of our service net work expansion plan. The Company is in the process of completing formalities to launch VISA Cards within 2009. LankaBangla Securities Limited, fully owned subsidiary of LankaBangla Finance Limited will open four more branches within 2009 and separate department will be opened to serve the Foreign Institutional clients and NRB account holders. Merchant Banking operation would be streamlined side by side with the net work expansion of LankaBangla Securities to avail the synergic impact on the operational performance.

On behalf of the management I would like to thank all our valued shareholders for the confidence & trust placed in the company. My thanks to the loyal customers, who continued to be with us despite strong pressure from the competitors. I also express my heartfelt gratitude to the Chairman & Members of the Board for their guidance and invaluable suggestions that management received all through. Thanks to our lenders, depositors, regulators & other stakeholders for their continued support Thank you all, for your cooperation and support.

Mafizuddin Sarker
Managing Director