Lanka Orix Leasing Company (LOLC) Holdings, a Sri Lankan unit of the Japanese conglomerate Orix, recently paid an undisclosed sum to Belgium’s Incofin Investment Management to acquire 28 percent of the shares of Rwanda’s Unguka Bank. Unguka provides deposit, lending and other services to individuals as well as micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The bank has 15 service locations in the capital and three provinces. It serves 1,700 clients with total assets of USD 29 million. Unguka received its license from the National Bank of Rwanda in 2005.
Geert Peetermans, Co-CEO of Incofin commented: “From the time we entered over a decade ago as first foreign institutional investor in the then early-stage microfinance bank Unguka, its team has consistently built out tailored services and deepened outreach among Rwanda’s rural MSMEs.”
LOLC Holdings has operations in a range of industries in Africa, Asia and Australia. Prior to this transaction, its microfinance institutions were active in Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. LOLC Holdings was founded in 1980 and reported USD 264 million in profits for the year 2022 on total assets of USD 4.7 billion.
Founded in 2001, Incofin is a for-profit firm that seeks “to promote inclusive progress.” As of 2022, it had 350 investees in 65 countries, mostly active in financial inclusion and agriculture. Incofin has offices in Belgium, Cambodia, Colombia, India and Kenya. The firm’s portfolio was valued at USD 1.4 billion as of 2021 and comprises funds affiliated with organizations such as the Belgian cooperative BRS, the German firm Invest in Visions and Belgium’s vdk bank.
Sources and Additional Resources
Incofin press release
https://incofin.com/incofin-sells-its-equity-stake-at-unguka-bank-in-rwanda/
Unguka homepage
https://www.ungukabank.com/
LOLC Holdings homepage
https://www.lolc.com
LOLC Holdings profile
https://lolc.com/assets/pdf/LOLC-Profile-24-01-2023.pdf
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