FIS Empresa Social, an Argentinean microfinance institution, has closed on a US$200,000 direct debt facility with the Dignity Fund. The transaction was facilitated by Redmond, Washington-based Unitus, with assistance from Chatham Financial. FIS seeks to provide microcredit services on a broad, sustainable scale in Argentina. The two-year loan, made in the local currency of Argentinean Pesos, will be used to aggressively expand the institution’s client base from 3,000 to 55,000 by 2009. FIS does not report financial information to the MIXMarket.
The Dignity Fund is a limited partnership, private investment fund. The partnership seeks to increase access to financial services among the poor and provides debt financing to promising microfinance institutions. As of year-end 2005, the fund had allocated US$3,500,000 to microfinance investments.
Unitus is a non-profit microfinance investment fund with assets of US$7,100,000 as of August 2004. It provides both strategic consulting and funding for microfinance institutions using its “Acceleration Model.” Unitus brought Chatham Financial in to advise on the complexities of the transaction. The company is a leader in foreign exchange and interest rate transactions.
Additional Resources
1) MIXMarket: UNITUS
2) MIXMarket: Dignity Fund
3) FIS Empresa Social
4) Unitus
5) Dignity Fund
6) Yahoo! Finance: “The Dignity Fund Provides $200,000 Debt Facility for Unitus Microfinance Institution Partner FIS,” April 26, 2006.
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