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Thursday, June 27, 2013

LOLC ties up with world giant BRAC to buy control of Nanda Investments

BRAC, one of the world’s largest micro financing providers, entered into a ground breaking strategic alliance with LOLC, one of the largest conglomerates whose core business is financial services, to acquire the controlling interest of Nanda Investments and Finance PLC (Nanda Investments).

This transaction will transfer 90,645,057 shares with a 56.6% stake of Nanda Investments to BRAC with LOLC taking a stake of 33.4%. LOLC is expected to make this equity investment through its fully owned subsidiary, LOLC Micro Investments Ltd.

Nanda Investments yesterday saw 91.2 million of its shares traded between a high of Rs. 9 and a low of Rs. 8.40 before closing at Rs. 8.60, up by 10 cents. The BRAC-LOLC buying was at Rs. 9 per share in a deal worth Rs. 815.8 million. Strike price is above the Net Assets Value per share of Rs. 5.29 as at 31 March 2013.

Nanda Investments is a registered finance company listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange with a lending portfolio of Rs. 290 million and a fixed deposit base of Rs. 88 million. The total assets of the company as at 31 March 2013 were Rs. 663 million.

BRAC is the largest development organisation in the world in terms of the scale and breadth of its operations and was founded 10 years ago in Bangladesh by its Chairman, Fazle Hasan Ahbed.

He is one of the ‘Global Greats’ in the social sector and for his outstanding contribution to social improvement, he has received the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the UNDP Mahbub Ul Haq Award, the inaugural Clinton Global Citizen Award and the inaugural WISE Prize for Education.

BRAC reaches out to the less privileged communities across the globe through microfinance, education, healthcare, legal services, community empowerment and more, catalysing lasting change and creating an ecosystem in which the less privileged have the chance to seize control of their own lives. Through this initiative, BRAC has reached and touched the lives of an estimated 126 million people, spanning across 11 countries in Asia and Africa and the Caribbean.

BRAC, with its 100,000 employees dedicated to spreading antipoverty in the world, focuses on social and financial empowerment of women, healthcare and education, empowering farmers though inclusive financial solutions, not only catering to financial needs, but also improving livelihood and financial literacy among the less privileged.

LOLC Group is one of the largest non-banking financial institutions in Sri Lanka formed in 1980 and pioneered leasing in the country. Within the open economy, the company revolutionised SME financing of income generating. This initiative changed millions of lives of the SME sector and many of them over the last three decades have graduated to the level of medium to large scale enterprises.

With this objective achieved, LOLC moved on with its next objective of reaching the non-bankable micro sector to facilitate financing to empower the micro sector with financial solutions that not only provided the much needed seed capital but to be a partner with interests in sustainable improvement of the livelihood of this community.

LOLC Micro Credit Ltd. (LOMC) was formed with this intention in 2009 along with FMO (The Netherlands Development Finance Company) who has a stake of 20% in the company. LOMC today is one of the largest micro financing institutions in the country, serving more than 160,000 customers and is reaching the poorest of the rural community through its 128 service outlets.

In the medium term, it is expected that BRAC and LOLC will invite Triodos Bank to invest in a stake of 10% and the new shareholder is expected to spearhead the provision of micro funding to fuel portfolio growth.

Triodos Bank is one of the world’s leading sustainable banks formed 30 years ago with the mission of making money work for positive social, environmental and cultural change and transacts only with sustainable companies. The bank has transactions with more than 355,000 customers with 6.8 billion euros under its management. The bank provides financial support for more than 6,000 sustainable enterprises in 40 countries worldwide.

Nanda Investments was founded in 1961 by Sirisena Mallawarachchi and in 1990, Anura Mallawarachchi took over the management of the company as the Chairman. Later, he stepped down and managed the company as Managing Director in line with Central Bank guidelines.

BRAC together with LOLC makes a formidable partnership in acquiring Nanda Investments which is expected to be positioned as a micro finance company to reach the rural community with whom both shareholders are familiar names for sustainable financial solutions.

BRAC will extend its current business model together with the backing of its global business operations platform while LOLC will play a key role in providing the know-how on the local micro credit business. Together with Triodos Bank, this partnership will flourish as a strong microfinance company with a sustainable business model of providing financing to less privileged rural community.

source - www.ft.lk