Posts Tagged ‘sks’
Posted on December 1, 2008 - by James
Big microfinance firms taking over clients of smaller players
Posted on November 18, 2008 - by James
Vikram Akula to step down as CEO of SKS Microfinance
Vikram Akula, founder of SKS Microfinance (SKS ), has announced plans to step down from the role of CEO after 10 years. Mr. Akula says that this change will allow him to focus on a new initiative - microinsurance. As MicroCapital reported earlier this year, SKS partnered with Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company to offer insurance products toclients. This announcement comes amid rapid growth in the company. Suresh Gurumani, Director, Barclays Bank, will take over as SKS Microfinance’s CEO. An official transition date was not given… [click here to read the rest of this article...]
Posted on November 14, 2008 - by James
India: SKS Raises 75m USD in Fourth Round…
The round is led by Sandstone Capital, an India focused hedge fund, and is largest investment in an MFI.
In the largest microfinance deal in the world, Hyderabad based SKS Microfinance has raised Rs 366 crore or $75 million from private equity investors. This is fourth round of fund raising by SKS. Sandstone Capital, an India focused hedge fund with $1 billion capital under management, has led the deal, while the other investors in this round include SVB India Capital and Kismet Capital.
This is the largest investment in a micro finance institution anywhere in the world, said SKS Microfinance founder CEO Vikram Akula. Since October last year the MFI has raised Rs 563 crore in three rounds of funding.
“We are going to be using these funds to leverage access to commercial finance and scale of our outreach in next two years,” said Akula. SKS currently has 1,400 branches with 12,000 employees, and Akula plans to double that in the next two years. He also said that microfinance remains largely unaffected from the global economic meltdown… [click here to read the rest of this article...]
Posted on October 9, 2008 - by lincolnw
The Global Financial Crisis And Microfinance
As financial markets struggle internationally, some microfinance institutions (MFIs) have begun to see downstream effects in the form of rising lending rates. Royston Braganza, chief executive officer of Grameen Capital India observed “the demand for funds is high because microfinanciers have drawn up aggressive growth plans” and “the cost of funds remains a concern due to the 2 percent increase in just the last quarter.” These factors could make fundraising very difficult for microfinance institutions in cases where they have not built up proper reserves according to K. Vinod Kumar, Assistant Vice-President of member services at SKS Microfinance.
Despite these calls for concern, some key microfinance practitioners and advocates are publicly voicing their support for microfinance as a stable alternative investment. Muhammad Yunus of the Grameen Foundation said, “The financial crisis has not hit the microfinance system” and that “in the middle of all these bad news: microfinance still works.” Bill Clinton said last week that investors should “consider the poor of developing nations as viable investment alternatives to today’s turbulent markets.”… [click this link to read the rest of the article]
Posted on August 21, 2008 - by James
Grameen, IndusInd, SKS, come together in India…
BUSINESS STANDARD
Grameen, IndusInd, SKS, come together in India in $29milUS transfer
Press Trust Of India / Mumbai 2008
Three leading institutions, IndusInd Bank, Grameen Capital India and SKS Microfinance, today announced the closure…
