Microfinance firm Grameen Financial Services Pvt Ltd, popularly known as Grameen Koota, has raised Rs 50 crore via listed non-convertible debentures (NCDs) from Triodos Fair Share Fund and Triodos Microfinance Fund managed by Triodos Investment Management, the company said in a statement.
As of November 27, 2013, Grameen Koota’s total NCD outstanding comes to about Rs131.90 crore.
Additionally, the MFI has also been upgraded to mfR2 as per the rating by CRISIL Ltd, on a scale of 1 (highest) to 8 (lowest) based on the organisation’s overall performance.
“We are happy to receive the NCD funding from Triodos at the same time when CRISIL upgrades our rating to mfR2. The funding from Triodos and the rating upgrade by CRISIL will enable us to further our goal of supporting women micro entrepreneurs from rural areas with microfinance services,” said Suresh Krishna, managing director of GFSPL.
Grameen Koota has been on a fundraising drive both by way of debt and equity. Early this year, it raised its third round of equity funding, led by US-based Creation Investments Capital Management. It had earlier raised $5.9 million in December 2009 and $3.64 million in April 2008.
On the debt side, it had earlier raised Rs 21 crore through unsecured, redeemable, non-convertible debentures from Deutsche Bank’s Global Commercial Microfinance Consortium II B.V. The firm also used the NCD to route to raise Rs 25 crore in 2012 and Rs 35 crore in 2011.
GFSPL currently operates in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu with an outstanding portfolio of Rs 523.9 crore as of March 31, 2013, and expects its loan growth to come from these three states, which have the largest number of MFIs.
In an earlier interaction with VCCircle, the company's CEO has said it is expecting over a 30 per cent increase in loans by the end of the current financial year, taking its outstanding book to Rs 700 crore.
The MFI crossed the Rs 500-crore mark in its loan growth in mid-March 2013 and is ranked among the top MFIs by gross loan growth in the country, according to microfinance industry body Micro Finance Institutions Network.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
