Last month, SKS Microfinance announced its plans to go public.
According to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Board of India, SKS is looking to raise more than $250 million. The company will be listed on the National Stock Exchange of India, and at least 60 percent of the IPO shares will be made available to institutional investors.
Now until now, our microfinance coverage has been limited. Although we did recently upload a new research report on microfinance that you can read here.
But with SKS going public (this being the first microfinance institution in India to go public), we thought it would be a good idea to provide you with a little background on SKS.
Although SKS Microfinance was a bit under the radar over the past few years, in 2009 the institution emerged as a major leader in the microfinance industry, boasting profits of 802.2 million Rupees (US$17.9 million). And for the first half of FY, 2010, SKS is already up 556 million Rupees (US$12.4 million).
As of September, 2009, SKS had 5.3 million members and 1,627 branches. In March, 2008, they had only 770 branches. The overall default rate for SKS loans is less than 1%.
SKS primarily serves millions of poor woman across thousands of villages and urban slums in India. The institution is also pursuing micro-insurance and offers education, housing, solar lamps and water purifiers.
Some of the financial institutions and investors that SKS has partnered with include:
- Barclays
- Citibank
- Ing
- HSBC
- Tata Capital Limited
- Axis Bank
- South Indian Bank
- Bajaj Allianz
- Sequoia Capital
- Vinod Khosla
- Unitus Equity Fund
- Silicon Valley Bank
- Kismet Capital
- Sandstone
You can read more about SKS here. And you can check out their 2008-09 annual report here.
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