SKS Microfinance has launched India’s first initial public offering (IPO), anticipation of which stretches at least back to a report by MicroCapital on March 29, 2010. Continue Reading »

SKS Microfinance reported it has raised INR 2.98 billion (USD 64 million) in a share allotment to 36 undisclosed anchor investors prior to its initial public offering (IPO) scheduled to open July 27, as was previously reported by MicroCapital on July 22, 2010. Continue Reading »

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a USD 4 million loan facility to Turkmenistan for on-lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Continue Reading »

Oikocredit, a microfinance investment fund in the Netherlands with total assets of USD 665 million, recently loaned a total of USD 4.7 million to four Bolivian microfinance institutions (MFIs). Continue Reading »

Oikocredit, a microfinance investment fund in the Netherlands with total assets of USD 665 million, recently loaned approximately USD 3.46 million to three Latin American microfinance institutions (MFIs). Continue Reading »

The Quantum Group of Funds, which consists of several privately owned hedge funds based in the Netherlands and Cayman Islands and managed by George Soros through Soros Fund Management, has purchased 300,000 shares in SKS Microfinance from Yatish Trading Company Pvt Ltd, an Indian securities firm. Continue Reading »

Village Financial Services Private Limited (VFS), a microfinance institution (MFI) in eastern India, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), a consumer goods company based in Mumbai, India, to improve access to safe drinking water. The partnership will enable poor households to take a loan at a zero rate of interest to buy HUL’s Pureit water purifiers. Continue Reading »

The Agricultural Bank of China Limited (ABC), a state-owned bank with total assets of USD 5.6 billion as of 2009, has reportedly provided microloans of USD 12.2 billion to Chinese farmers within the first three months of 2010. Continue Reading »

Finance in Motion (FIM), a German asset management firm with EUR 800 million under advisory, has signed the United Nations’ (UNs’) Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), thereby pledging to integrate sustainability into its investment processes. The PRI are declarations jointly developed by the UN Environment Program Finance Initiative and the UN Global Compact. Continue Reading »

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), a London-based financial services institution, have jointly raised USD 164 million of debt financing for Transcapitalbank, a Russian bank which primarily supports small and medium-sized enterprises and has total assets of RUB 58 billion (USD 1.9 billion) at December 31, 2009. Continue Reading »

Triple Jump, a Dutch microfinance investment manager, recently reported to MicroCapital that is has provided a loan in local currency for an unspecified amount to Al Tadamun, an Egyptian microfinance institution (MFI) with total assets of USD 8.6 million in 2008. Continue Reading »

Promoters of Bharatiya Samruddhi Finance Limited (BSFL), the microfinance arm of BASIX Group, have announced that they will buy back a seven percent stake in BSFL, or roughly INR 850 million (USD 18 million), from existing share holders. A report from TheHinduBusinessLine.com quoted Mr Sajeev Viswanathan, Chief Executive Officer at BSFL, as saying, “We are doing this as we wish to have control over the business and to continue our own source of capital.” The promoterss stake of BASIX will go up from 23 percent to 30 percent. The stake would be bought from Indian public charitable trust, ICICI Froundation for Inclusive Growth; microfinance investments vehicle (MIV), International Finance Corporation (IFC); and US financial institution, Shorecap International Limited. ICICI will most likely exit from the company by selling its 2.8 percent stake, while the others may sell just part of their stakes. Continue Reading »

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has announced that it will loan USD 25 million to Zambia National Commercial Bank PLC (Zanaco) to help increase access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly in the agricultural sector. A press release from IFC reports that Zanaco plans to use the loan to help expand its lending to less developed and rural regions of Zambia. Continue Reading »

responsAbility, a Swiss microfinance investment vehicle (MIV) manager, recently reported to MicroCapital that it has executed debt investments totaling the equivalent of nearly USD 1.1 million in microfinance institutions (MFIs) in El Salvador and Mexico. Continue Reading »

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has announced that it will assist Jordan in developing a legal and institutional framework for secured lending, with the goal of reducing the cost of lending and expanding the availability of credit to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). A recent press release from IFC states that it is advising Jordan’s Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT) as it develops legislation to regulate secured lending – a type of lending involving the use of moveable assets, such as equipment and inventory, as collateral for a loan. Continue Reading »

Grameen America, a microlender in the US whose board is chaired by Dr Muhammad Yunus of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, has made plans to open its fifth branch in the United States. Grameen America, which already has three branches in New York City and one in Omaha, Nebraska, announced that it will use USD 1 million in equity investments from the Community Lending and Investment division of the financial services provider, Wells Fargo and Company, to open a new branch bank in San Francisco, California. Continue Reading »

The responsAbility Global Microfinance Fund and the responsAbility Mikrofinanz-Fonds, microfinance investment vehicles founded by responsAbility Social Investments AG, recently reported to MicroCapital that they have provided debt financing to the Bolivian arm of Pro Mujer, a microfinance institution supporting poor women in Latin America; Coffee Central Agricultural Cooperatives COCLA LTDA (COCLA), a Peruvian coffee cooperative; and Asociacion Union de Cafetaleros Ecologicos (Unicafec), a Peruvian coffee producers association. Continue Reading »

Triple Jump, a Dutch microfinance investment manager, recently reported to MicroCapital that its ASN-Novib Fund, a microfinance investment vehicle with assets of USD 101 million as of fiscal 2009, has provided USD 2 million in debt financing to Mexican microfinance institution EnConfianza and KHR 2 billion (USD 500,000) to Cambodia’s Credit Microfinance Institution. Continue Reading »