FINCA Impact Finance, a network of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in 20 countries, recently agreed to
Category: Deals
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation Disburses 3-year Loan of $1.1m to Sinapi Aba for Microfinance in Ghana
The Grameen Credit Agricole (GCA) Foundation, whose head office is in Luxembourg, recently issued a three-year loan in local currency approximately equivalent to USD 1.15 million in favor of Sinapi Aba Trust to support microlending in Ghana. The institution provides financial services through Sinapi Aba Savings & Loans (SASL) with the aim of creating development and income-generation opportunities for people with low incomes. Of SASL’s lending, 80 percent
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Yoma Bank Lending Easy Microfinance $5m to Reach 28k Additional Borrowers in Myanmar
Yoma Bank of Myanmar recently agreed to lend a total of MMK 8 billion (USD 5 million) to Easy Microfinance of Myanmar to enable the microfinance institution (MFI) to extend its
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Proximity Finance Myanmar Borrows $1.5m in Local Currency from Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation for Rural Microfinance Lending
The Grameen Credit Agricole (GCA) Foundation, whose head office is in Luxembourg, recently informed MicroCapital that it has lent local currency approximately equivalent to USD 1.5 million in favor of Proximity Finance Myanmar for on-lending in rural areas. Proximity Finance is a unit of Proximity Designs, which is a US-registered NGO exclusively serving Myanmar. Proximity Designs offers technical assistance and research services as well as – through Proximity Finance – loans for farming, raising livestock, relocation and
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Chamroeun Borrowing $1.2m from Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation for Microfinance in Cambodia
The Grameen Credit Agricole (GCA) Foundation, whose head office is in Luxembourg, recently informed MicroCapital that it is lending USD 1.2 million to Chamroeun Microfinance. Chamroeun was launched in 2006 as a nonprofit by French NGO Entrepreneurs du Monde to deliver loans, savings, and microinsurance to poor people in the city of Phnom Penh. The institution has since
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Kenya’s BIMAS Borrowing $580k from Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation for Rural Microfinance
The Grameen Credit Agricole (GCA) Foundation, whose head office is in Luxembourg, recently informed MicroCapital that it is lending the local-currency equivalent of EUR 500,000 (USD 580,000) to Business Initiatives and Management Assistance Services (BIMAS), a microfinance institution in Kenya. BIMAS, which is based in the city of Embu, was founded in 1997. The institution offers microinsurance as well as group and individual loans specific to youth, farming, dairy production, education, solar power and
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: JSC Credo Bank Has Acquired Microfinance Portfolios of MFO BIG, MFO Credit Plus Georgia
Joint Stock Company (JSC) Credo Bank, a Georgian bank, recently announced that it has purchased the microfinance portfolios of two microfinance organizations (MFOs), BIG and Credit Plus Georgia, for
SPECIAL REPORT: Responsible Investment Requires Responsible Exits – Applying a Fitness and Compatibility Review Matrix to Choose an Equity Buyer for AMK Cambodia
In 2012, Incofin’s Rural Impulse Fund II (RIF II) bought a 25-percent stake in AMK, a microfinance institution in Cambodia. Six years later, RIF II exited AMK, selling its stake to Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank (SCSB). Dina Pons, Incofin’s regional director for East Asia, shares some insights on the exit 
process.
IN PHOTO: The last and first meeting of AMK’s board of directors: entering and exiting members ensuring a smooth transition.
MicroCapital: Please tell us a bit about AMK’s social performance and Incofin’s contribution to it.
Dina Pons: Founded in 2003, AMK is one of the largest and most recognised finance institutions operating in rural Cambodia. It serves around 700,000 clients nationwide with a unique set of financial services, including credit, savings, money transfers and insurance. AMK’s strong customer centricity and deep focus on rural clients were among the key attractions for us to invest in the company. Since its inception, AMK’s mission has been “to help large numbers of poor people improve their livelihood options through the delivery of appropriate and viable microfinance services.” Far from being just a theoretical motto, AMK’s social mission is what drives the institution and its staff to perform. For instance, a board-level social performance committee, which I was privileged to chair for three years, was tasked with checking each year whether
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Société Générale de Banque au Liban to Borrow $50m from EBRD for On-lending to Small, Medium-Sized Enterprises in Lebanon
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), a UK-based multilateral institution, recently agreed to loan Société Générale de Banque au Liban (SGBL), a Lebanese bank, USD 50 million to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in rural areas and another USD 50 million for firms involved in importing and exporting. The latter allocation falls under EBRD’s Trade Facilitation Programme (TFP), which was launched in 1999 and is intended to promote trade among Eastern Europe, North Africa, and Central and Western Asia. As of 2018, TFP engages approximately 100 issuing banks in 28 economies, with total approved financing limits exceeding EUR 1.5 billion (USD 1.8 billion). TFP also works with approximately 800
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Oradian Deploys Microfinance Software-as-a-service (SaaS) Instafin in Kenya
Oradian, a Croatia-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, recently won a contract with Jirani Smart, a microfinance institution (MFI) that has been active rural Kenya since 2016. As of 2018, Jirani Smart serves approximately 15,000 clients from seven branches.
Oradian’s flagship product is Instafin, a core
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: EBRD Loans $20m in Local-currency to BNB-Bank, MTBank for SMEs in Belarus
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), a UK-based multilateral institution, recently signed its first transactions providing local-currency funding in Belarus. EBRD extended lines of credit equivalent to USD 10 million each to Belarusky Narodny Bank (BNB-Bank) and
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Invest in Visions’ IIV Mikrofinanzfonds Lends $13m to Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in Ecuador, El Salvador, Georgia, Mongolia – Including $1.5m to JSC Georgian Credit
Germany-based Invest in Visions (IIV) recently announced that it loaned USD 1.5 million to Joint Stock Company (JSC) Georgian Credit, a microfinance institution (MFI) in Georgia. IIV disbursed the loan from its microfinance investment vehicle IIV Mikrofinanzfonds, which lends to MFIs in developing countries. Including this loan, IIV Mikrofinanzfonds loaned
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Nonghyup (NH) Bank Acquires Microfinance Institution Samic of Cambodia, Plans More Lending for Agricultural Equipment, Housing, SMEs
NongHyup (NH) Bank, which is controlled by South Korea’s NongHyup Group, recently obtained regulatory approval to acquire Samic, a microfinance institution (MFI) in Cambodia, for an undisclosed price. NH Bank reportedly plans to change the name of the MFI to NongHyup Finance Cambodia.
Samic’s 18 branches are mainly located in smaller cities, and NH Bank plans to expand the organization’s presence in
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: ResponsAbility Buys Equity Stake in C88, Fintech Expanding Access to Lending, Insurance via CekAja.com in Indonesia, eCompareMo.com in the Philippines
A private equity investment vehicle managed by responsAbility Investments AG, a Switzerland-based asset manager specializing in impact investments in developing countries, recently paid an undisclosed sum to buy a minority stake of undisclosed size in Singapore-based C88 Financial Technologies. C88 operates online platforms that help consumers in Indonesia and the Philippines compare and
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Gentera’s FiinLab, Oikocredit, Vox Capital Buy Equity Stakes in Fintech Avante, Boosting Mobile Microfinance, POS Service for Microenterprises in Brazil
Brazilian financial technology (fintech) firm Avante recently raised an undisclosed amount of funding from FiinLab, a unit of Mexico’s Gentera Group; Oikocredit, a Dutch cooperative; and Vox Capital, a Brazilian investor in education, health and financial services. The sizes of the stakes taken by each have not been disclosed. Of the three investors, only Vox
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank (SCSB) Buys 80% of AMK of Cambodia from Agora Microfinance, Incofin’s Rural Impulse Fund II, Norfund’s Cambodia-Laos Development Fund, Proparco
Incofin Investment Management, a Belgium-based impact investor, recently announced that its Rural Impulse Fund (RIF) II is among several entities selling a total of 80.01 percent of the shares of Cambodian microfinance institution Angkor Mikroheranhvatho Kampuchea (AMK) to Taiwan-based Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank (SCSB). The other sellers are Agora Microfinance NV, a Dutch holding company; the Cambodia-Laos Development Fund of the Norwegian government’s Norfund; and the French government’s Societe de Promotion et de Participation pour La Coopération Economique (Proparco). While the sizes of the former shareholdings have not been released, each of the investors is exiting AMK completely, except for Agora Microfinance NV. AMK Staff Association,
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: FMO Extending $450k Convertible Grant to Kenyan Fintech Firm Lendable
The Netherlands Development Finance Company, a public-private bank also known by its Dutch acronym FMO, recently agreed to extend a convertible grant of USD 450,000 to Lendable, a Kenyan firm that offers financing and analytics services to organizations such as leasing companies; pay-as-you-go energy service providers; and lenders to micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises. Convertible grants allow investors
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: IFC Loaning $55m to Argentina’s Banco Industrial (Bind) to Boost SME Lending
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a unit of the World Bank Group, recently agreed to loan USD 55 million to Argentina’s Banco Industrial (Bind) to provide small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with “longer-term financing than [is] currently available in the local market.” An estimated 70 percent of SMEs in the country have difficulty accessing credit. David Tinel, IFC’s Regional Manager for the Southern Cone, states that for SMEs