MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Symbiotics Partners with Cooperative CACPECO on $14m Bond for Housing, MSME Lending in Ecuador

Symbiotics, a Switzerland-based impact investing firm, recently partnered with Cooperativa de Ahorro y Crédito de la Pequeña Empresa de Cotopaxi (CACPECO), a cooperative in Ecuador, to fund it with the proceeds of a bond in the amount of USD 14 million, for a term of 4 years. The funds are to be used for: (1) housing loans with 15-year terms and interest rates of 9.9 percent per year; and (2) business loans of up to USD 1 million for micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Of the MSME loans, those used for microenterprise will range up to USD 10,000. Symbiotics listed the bond on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange’s Luxembourg Green Exchange, a “platform for sustainable securities and issuers contributing to financing a low-carbon and more inclusive economy.”

Virginia Escobar, the CEO of CACPECO, stated that the funding will support “financial inclusion through the provision of microloans to women, specifically boosting our highly social financial products called ‘Créditos Creer’ and ‘Grupal Mujeres,’ as they link education, savings and cooperative spirit.”

CACPECO was launched in 1988 and reports total assets of USD 444 million as of September 2021. The coop serves 198,000 members through 20 branches.

Founded in 2004, Symbiotics provides for-profit investment intermediary and business services to investors in and practitioners of MSME development as well as lenders to low- and middle-income households. As of 2020, the company reported a direct investment portfolio of USD 2.3 billion invested in 80 countries.

By Sheen Gupta, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

Symbiotics press release
https://symbioticsgroup.com/news/press-release-symbiotics-launches-usd-14-million-social-bond-in-ecuador-with-cooperativa-de-ahorro-y-credito-de-la-pequena-empresa-de-cotopaxi-cacpeco/

CACPECO homepage
https://www.cacpeco.com/

CACPECO financial information
https://www.cacpeco.com/transparencia/

LGX webpage
https://www.bourse.lu/green

Previous MicroCapital article on Symbiotics
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-acba-symbiotics-partnering-on-6-7m-bond-issue-for-msmes-green-lending-in-armenia/

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