International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private investment arm of the World Bank, has proposed to make a debt investment of up to $50 million (around Rs 423 crore) in listed microfinance firm CreditAccess Grameen Ltd.
“The proposed IFC investment comprises a senior debt investment of up to $50 million in CreditAccess Grameen Limited (CAGL) for a 3-year tenor. The proceeds will be used towards expanding the company’s portfolio to female borrowers for income generation purposes, specifically in the low-income or rural areas of India,” a disclosure by IFC mentioned.
In July last year, Bengaluru-based CreditAccess Grameen raised $25 million (Rs 187 crore) in external commercial borrowings (ECB) from Sweden’s development finance institution Swedfund International AB, VCCircle reported.
Targeted for on-lending to straight senior loan and syndications, IFC’s investment in CreditAccess, according to the former’s disclosure, will support resilience among microfinance institutions in the market by providing comfort to other local and international investors.
Last month VCCircle had reported that IFC committed at least $35 million in homegrown Motilal Oswal Private Equity's (MOPE) fourth fund, which is sized at over $588 million (Rs 4,500 crore).
In August last year, Kandla International Container Terminal Private Limited (KICT), which is a part of the JM Baxi Group and is 100% held by International Cargo Terminals & Infrastructure Pvt Ltd (ICTIPL), received senior debt loan of up to $30 million from IFC.
CreditAccess Grameen, earlier this month, reported its consolidated Q4FY22 net profit nearly tripled to Rs 160 crore versus Rs 56.3 crore year-on-year while its net interest income and pre-provisioning operational profit showed a rise of 12.1% year-on-year, at Rs 520 crore and Rs 368.8 crore respectively. The microfinance lender’s gross loan portfolio and disbursements for the final quarter of FY22 were also up more than 22% each year-on-year.
CreditAccess operates in 14 Indian states and one union territory through 1,635 branches and has a borrower base of 3.8 million women borrowers. The microlender has a gross loan portfolio of $2.2 billion and a net worth of $543 million as of March 31.