Deutsche Investitions – und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG), a subsidiary of German development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW); agRIF, a fund of Belgium’s Incofin Investment Management; and Japan-based asset manager Daiwa Partners recently signed an agreement to make an equity investment totaling USD 9 million
Search Results for: Incofin
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Microfund for Women (MFW) Borrowing $5m from EIB to Extend Microfinance to 146k Syrian Refugees, Local Entrepreneurs in Jordan
The EU’s European Investment Bank (EIB) recently agreed to loan USD 5 million to Jordanian microfinance institution Microfund for Women (MFW) to give microenterprises greater access to finance. The deal will support 146,000 people, almost all of them women. A portion of the funds are intended to help Syrian refugees
SPECIAL REPORT: A Model from Cambodia for Preventing Overheating – Not Just Multiple Lending; to be Presented at European Microfinance Week; November 14-16, 2018
Since 
2016, the 95-member Cambodia Microfinance Association (CMA), Incofin, MIMOSA, the Credit Bureau of Cambodia, and several other stakeholders have been developing the CMA Lending Guidelines, under which microfinance institutions (MFIs) are working together to prevent over-indebtedness in Cambodia. The project is funded by Incofin, PROPARCO, BIO, FMO and ADA.
MicroCapital: How long have you been concerned about possible overheating in the Cambodian microfinance market?
Kea Borann: Concerns of the market overheating started at least as early as 2015. Since then, the total outstanding portfolio of the industry has been growing at an average of 25 percent per year, even as the number of loans has remained unchanged at 2.3 million. This seems to mean that the same clients are taking on more debt when their loans are renewed. The average loan size grew from USD 1,691 to
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: Green for Growth Fund (GGF) Loans $1.5m to Microfinance Organization Crystal of Georgia
The Green for Growth Fund (GGF), a Luxembourg-based lender to projects deemed beneficial to the environment, recently loaned USD 1.5 million to Joint Stock Company Microfinance Organization Crystal, a microfinance institution primarily serving microentrepreneurs and farmers in rural Georgia. Crystal plans to use the proceeds
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: IFC Loans $1.2m to AFK of Kosovo for Microlending to Smallholder Farmers; Micro-, Small Enterprises (MSEs)
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a unit of the World Bank Group, recently loaned EUR 1 million (USD 1.2 million) to the Agency for Finance in Kosovo (AFK), a microfinance institution that focuses on
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Fundacion BBVA MicroFinanzas Continues Buying Equity in Microfinance Institution Financiera Confianza of Peru with responsAbility Transaction
Fundacion BBVA MicroFinanzas, which was launched by Spain’s Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) in 1998, recently added to its shareholding in Financiera Confianza, a Peruvian microfinance institution (MFI) by purchasing the stake held by Switzerland-based responsAbility Investments. Although the size and price of the holding, which responsAbility began building in 2008, remains confidential, responsAbility reports that it earned “over three
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Microfinance Organization Crystal of Georgia, VisionFund’s Monte Credit of Montenegro Borrow $3.6m from Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation
The Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation (GCAF), whose head office is in Luxembourg, recently informed MicroCapital that it has disbursed three-year loans denominated in euros to two microfinance institutions. Crystal Microfinance Organization, a joint stock company in Georgia, borrowed the equivalent of
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: KMF and Bereke of Kazakhstan, Vasham of Indonesia Borrow $5.1m from Grameen Credit Agricole Microfinance Foundation
The Grameen Credit Agricole Microfinance Foundation (GCAMF), a Luxembourg-based provider of financial services primarily to microfinance institutions, recently informed MicroCapital that it has committed to extending the following local-currency loans in phases over three years: the equivalent of USD 3.9 million to KazMicroFinance LLC (KMF) of Kazakhstan, the equivalent of USD 550,000 to Bereke of Kazakhstan, and the equivalent of USD 660,000 to Vasham of Indonesia.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Fairtrade Access Fund Issues $3m Trade-finance Loan to Cote d’Ivoire’s Enterprise Cooperative Kimbe (Ecookim), Supporting 12k Cocoa Farmers
German development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) recently notified MicroCapital that the Fairtrade Access Fund (FAF), which invests in initiatives supporting farmers in developing countries, has issued a trade finance loan of USD 3 million to Enterprise Cooperative Kimbe (Ecookim), a union of 23 cooperatives in Cote d’Ivoire.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Fairtrade Access Fund Loans $750k to Colombia’s Cooperativa DelosAndes for Coffee Mill
Germany-based development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) recently notified MicroCapital that the Fairtrade Access Fund (FAF), which invests in initiatives supporting farmers in developing countries, has loaned USD 750,000 to Cooperativa DelosAndes, a Colombia-based coffee cooperative, to co-finance a wet mill.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: MBK Borrowing $15m from FMO to Grow Group Microfinance Loan Portfolio in Indonesia
Mitra Bisnis Keluarga Ventura (MBK), a microfinance institution providing group loans to women in Indonesia, recently borrowed USD 15 million from Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden (FMO), a Netherlands-based development finance institution. This is the third loan FMO has provided to MBK
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: India’s Muthoot Raises $20m in Equity from Creation Investments Amidst Plans to Open 500 New Microfinance Branches
Creation Investments Capital Management, a US-based alternative investment company, recently announced that it has placed an equity investment of USD 20 million in Muthoot Microfin Limited, a unit of Indian conglomerate Muthoot Pappachan Group. Muthoot Microfin
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Invest in Visions Lends $2m to Beige Capital Savings and Loans of Ghana
Germany’s Invest in Visions Mikrofinanzfonds, a fund advised by Belgium’s Incofin, recently agreed to loan up to USD 5 million to Beige Capital Savings and Loans, a unit of Ghana’s Beige Group, which offers banking, pension, insurance and investment services. Among Beige Capital’s goals is to “be the [small and medium-sized enterprise] bank of choice across Ghana.”
As part of the process of considering
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Oikocredit Increases Equity Stake in Bolivian MFI Banco FIE
Oikocredit, a cooperative “social investment” fund based in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, recently increased its equity stake in Banco para el Fomento a las Iniciativas Económicas (Banco FIE), “more than doubling” its investment in the Bolivian microfinance bank.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Starbucks to Commit Additional $30m to Global Farmer Fund Program; Fairtrade Access Fund, Root Capital to Assist with Loans to Coffee Farmers
Starbucks Coffee Company, a US-based coffee retailer, recently announced that it would commit an additional USD 30 million to its Global Farmer Fund program, one of the organization’s “ethical sourcing initiatives”[1] that aims to ensure the sustainability of the organization’s production chain up to 2020.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: BIO, Oikocredit Invest $8.3 million in Fusion Microfinance of India
Fusion Microfinance (Fusion), a microfinance institution (MFI) based in New Delhi, has received a combined investment of INR 53 crores (USD 8.28 million) from Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries SA (BIO), an investment company backed by the government of Belgium; and the Dutch cooperative investment fund Oikocredit.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Belgium’s Impulse Microfinance Investment Fund Exits from MFIs in India, Mexico
During the year ending December 2014, the Impulse Microfinance Investment Fund (Impulse Fund), which is managed by Belgium’s Incofin Investment Management (Incofin), sold its equity stakes in India-based Grameen Koota and the Mexican operations of El Salvador-based Apoyo Integral Inversiones, according to a recent announcement by Incofin.