Merrill Lynch Community Development Company (MLCDC), a for-profit development-focused subsidiary of Merrill Lynch & Company, Inc., has invested USD 10 million in Calvert Community Investment (CCI) notes, which are fixed income products issued by the Calvert Social Investment Foundation, a development non-profit located in Besthesda, MD. The MLCDC investment will finance about twenty microfinance institutions (MFIs) that are expected to provide micro-credit over 25,000 female entrepreneurs in developing nations. The initiative was announced at the recent 2008 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) summit, an annual gathering of global leaders in government, business and civil society for the purpose of discussing pressing development challenges and their solutions.
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NEWS WIRE: United States: Calvert Foundation Receives $10m Investment from Merrill Lynch
Source: Social Funds.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Calvert Foundation Makes Microfinance Investments Totaling $1.6m in Banco Solidario, Unitus and Pro Mujer
In its Microfinance Capital Markets Update, CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor) reports that Calvert Social Investment Foundation invested USD 1.6 million in three microfinance organizations. Calvert invested USD 400,000 in Banco Solidario, USD 500,000 in Unitus and USD 650,000 in Pro Mujer. CGAP reports that in transacting with Pro Mujer, Calvert made two separate investments, one totaling USD 150,000, directed “worldwide”, the other totaling USD 500,000 directed towards Latin America and the Caribbean.
PRESS RELEASE: US Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) Announces Guarantee to Allow Calvert to Sell $143m in Community Investment Notes on MicroPlace
Source: Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Calvert Foundation Lends $500,000 to Mongolian Microfinance Institution XacBank
In another deal coming to us courtesy of Microfinance Capital Markets Newsletter of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and the MIX, the microfinance information clearinghouse, Calvert Foundation, a nonprofit community investment vehicle, recently invested USD 500,000 in loans in XacBank, a leading microfinance institution (MFI) in Mongolia.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: MicroCapital talks to Shari Berenbach, Executive Director of the Calvert Foundation, About the Foundation’s Relationship with MicroPlace and how it Became the First Issuer to Sell Investments on the Site
The Calvert Foundation has always been at the cutting edge of social community investing, so it was no surprise to find out that it was the first issuer to market securities on the new retail microfinance web-brokerage service owned by eBay, MicroPlace. Through MicroPlace it is marketing 15 microfinance institutions to which everyday investors can make loans by investing in Calvert Community Investment Notes.
MICROCAPITAL FEATURE: The MicroPlace Launch: MicroCapital Talks to Tracey Pettengill Turner, Founder and General Manager of MicroPlace and Shari Berenbach, Executive Director of the Calvert Foundation, One of the First Microfinance Product Providers on the Site.
For all those involved in the microfinance industry it would have been well nigh on impossible to miss the launch of MicroPlace, eBay’s new online retail microfinance marketplace, in recent weeks in the media. Despite the company’s small-sounding name, the launch is big, and has the potential to substantially grow the capital-raising capabilities of the industry, as well as spread the word about microfinance to a much wider audience than currently exists.
In essence the launch takes three big steps all at once: it will market to over 100 million potential everyday investors via eBay; it will offer them the chance to invest in securities lending to microfinance institutions (MFIs) via the internet; and finally all of this will be completed under full investor compliance regulatory supervision.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: A Leading Group of Microfinance Players, including Microrate, Global Partnerships, ACCION International, the Calvert Foundation and Calmeadow, Create The FX Consortium, A Foreign Exchange Risk Mitigation Service
The FX Consortium has been founded by a group of leading players in the US microfinance industry to provide a “Foreign Exchange Risk Mitigation Service”. Its aim is to help microfinance institutions (MFIs) that want to use complex financial processes, such as hedging, to manage their hard currency foreign debt obligations.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: The Calvert Foundation, in Partnership with Microvest, Announce their USD 1.5 million Loan to Ghana Based Microfinance Institution Sinapi Aba Trust
Microvest, a global microfinance intermediary, and the Calvert Foundation, a community investment firm, have announced their USD 1.5 million investment into Sinapi Aba Trust (SAT), a non-profit microfinance institution (MFI), headquartered in Kumasi, Ghana.
Continue reading “MICROCAPITAL STORY: The Calvert Foundation, in Partnership with Microvest, Announce their USD 1.5 million Loan to Ghana Based Microfinance Institution Sinapi Aba Trust”
MicroVest Obtains a Microfinance Investor, the Canadian Meritas Jantzi Social Index Fund, and Syndicates a Loan with Calvert Investment and The Dignity Fund, to the Ecuadorian based Microbank, D-Miro
MicroVest One, LP is a USD 25 mm is a fund, managed by MicroVest Capital Management, LLC. MicroVest’s goal is to expand the capacity of existing, profitable MFIs throughout the world while building capital markets that work for the poor. MicroVest is based in Bethesda, Maryland and was founded by CARE, a humanitarian organization fighting global poverty, MEDA (Mennonite Economic Development Associates), an association that provides access to savings and credit for the poor, and the Seed Capital Development Fund a non-profit charity founded in 1991, that is dedicated to economic development through the support of microfinance institutions (MFIs) and other non-governmental development institutions in developing countries.
Microfinance Investor Calvert Foundation reaches Milestone
The Calvert Foundation recently reported that it has achieved $100 million in sales of its Calvert Community Investment Notes. This investment option, which seeks to mobilize capital for both financial and social returns, was the first instrument of its kind.
The Community Investment Notes allow investors to earn a set return of 0-3% while using their capital to support microcredit and small business loans endeavors, as well as affordable housing and other community development efforts. Proceeds from the Community Investment Notes fund a portfolio that includes 200 non-profit organizations in all 50 US states and 100 countries.
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Calvert Foundation Invests Another US$1 million in MicroCredit Enterprises LLC to Fund Microfinance Investing
The Calvert Foundation has made a second significant investment in the recently founded MicroCredit Enterprises LLC. It had also invested $3 million at the end of last year (see microcapital blog).
According to the Calvert Foundation’s press release, the funding received by MicroCredit Enterprises was just one of its recent microfinance investments. Others include $250,000 to MI-BOSPO, which provides microloans for Bosnian women; $326,396 to OikoCredit, one of the largest financiers of the Microfinance industry; and $600,000 to the Latin America Challenge Investment Fund, SA (LACIF), which provides loans to Latin American MFIs.
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Calvert Foundation Makes $3 Million Investment in Recently Launched MicroCredit Enterprises Fund
Sacramento-based MicroCredit Enterprises Fund (MCE Fund) received a $3 million loan from the DC area Calvert Foundation. The MicroCredit Enterprises Fund, which has just been launched this year, is aligned with MicroCredit Enterprises LLC which has an operating budget of $200,000 for 2006. MicroCredit Enterprises will provide loans to both non-profit and for-profit microfinance institutions (MFIs) throughout the world. The MCE Fund’s application to become a non-profit is currently pending approval.
Calvert Foundation Continues to Break Ground for Non-accredited Microcredit Investors
A new deal between global investment banking company Incapital and social investment fund Calvert Foundation means a potential tenfold increase in availability of Calvert Foundation Community Investing Notes (CI) to U.S. brokerage firms. The Calvert Foundation, founded in 1995 by Calvert Group, an asset management firm with $8.5 billion under management, stands out in the “socially responsible investment” world because the CI Notes are available in almost all States to non-accredited investors with a $1,000 minimum investment.
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MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Bank of Africa, Sanad Fund Deploying $27m for SME Finance in Morocco
Bank of Africa, which is based in Morocco and serves 32 countries, recently agreed to borrow EUR 25 million (USD 27 million) from the Luxembourg-domiciled Sanad Fund for MSME to on-lend to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Morocco. Sanad is supporting the loan with
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Sanad Fund for MSME Sells 30% Equity Stake in GlobalCorp of Egypt, as Amethis, EBRD, SPE Capital Acquire Controlling Stake
A group of three entities recently acquired majority control of GlobalCorp for Financial Services, an Egyptian provider of leasing and factoring services to small and large enterprises. The buyers are
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Foodics Buys Equity Stake in POSRocket from Sanad Fund for MSME, Linking Providers of Financial, Business Technology to Restaurants in MENA
Foodics, a technology firm serving restaurants in the Middle East and North Africa, recently bought an equity stake of unspecified size in POSRocket, a point-of-sale (POS) platform supporting businesses in the food, beverage and other industries. Foodics purchased the holding from the Sanad Fund for MSME, a Luxembourg-domiciled investor in micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), which Sanad had held it through its second equity sub-fund (ESF II). Subsequent to the deal, POSRocket’s customers
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Sanad, Aavishkaar, Uncovered Participate in $4m Equity Raise by Sky.Garden of Kenya to Expand Its Digital Marketplace to Middle East, North Africa
The Luxembourg-domiciled Sanad Fund for MSME recently led a Series A investment in Sky.Garden, a Kenya-based e-commerce platform serving 15,000 micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Sky.Garden plans to use the fresh USD 4 million to expand into