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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | SKS I.P.O. Ignites Microfinance Debate

SKS I.P.O. Ignites Microfinance Debate

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published Published on Aug 2, 2010   modified Modified on Aug 2, 2010


An Indian company that makes tiny loans to villagers aims to raise up to $354 million in an initial public offering, a move critics fear will encourage India’s largest microfinance lender to put shareholders above the poor it serves, The Associated Press writes.

SKS Microfinance’s share sale, begun Wednesday, has already drawn the ire of one of the leading lights in the field. A publicly traded company’s traditional obligation is to make money for its shareholders, while the mission of microfinance — loans typically under $200 for starting businesses that banks won’t make — is to lift people out of poverty.

Some say those are irreconcilable objectives. Others argue it is possible to serve two bottom lines simultaneously, reaping both financial and societal rewards. Either way, SKS’s I.P.O. — the first in India and the third worldwide — is likely to set a trend. Other Indian microfinance lenders are watching and waiting to see whether they too should tap capital markets.

”This is pushing microfinance in the loan-sharking direction,” Muhammad Yunus, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work at the established microfinance lender,  Grameen Bank, told The Associated Press. ”It’s not mission drift. It’s endangering the whole mission.

”By offering an I.P.O., you are sending a message to the people buying the I.P.O. there is an exciting chance of making money out of poor people. This is an idea that is repulsive to me,” he said. ”Microfinance is in the direction of helping the poor retain their money rather than redirecting it in the direction of rich people.”


The New York Times, 29 July, 2010, http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/sks-i-p-o-sparks-microfinance-debate/?scp=5&sq=India&st=cse


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