Microfinance News Synopsis: SKS Microfinance to double headcount to 42K

Microfinance Focus, July 23, 2010: Microfinance News Synopsis brings a compilation of industry headlines broadcasted by other news media from across the world.

SKS Microfinance to double headcount to 42K; IPO opens Jul 28: The country’s largest microfinance company SKS Microfinance, which hopes to raise around Rs 1,300 crore through its forthcoming IPO, plans to double its headcount to 42,000 by the end of the current fiscal as it expands capacity. “We will expand our branch network from the current 2,000. We have been doubling our headcount for the past two years. Going by previous records we can be hopeful of doubling the headcount in the current fiscal too,” SKS Microfinance chief executive and managing director Suresh Gurumani said here today. At the end of the last fiscal, the company had 21,000 employees. The Hyderabad-based microfinance firm’s initial public offering, which opens on July 28, will the first such issue by any microfinance company in the country [Economic Times]

Twist in retail tale: MFIs depict co-existence of retail giants with Kiranas: It’s a nagging, almost decade-old doubt that has kept foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail at bay: will the entry of Big Retail hurt the six million kirana stores? As the nation grapples with the question, a series of interesting pilot projects are demonstrating how the giants and the dwarfs can co-exist, and even fuel each other’s growth, thanks to a little help from microfinance institutions (MFIs). Biggies like Wal-Mart, Metro Cash & Carry and the Future Group have forged partnerships with microfinance and financial institutions to sell merchandise on credit to rural kiranas. The MFIs not only provide credit, but also double up as valuable intermediaries that collect orders from the kiranas, source the merchandise from big retailers and deliver it at the kirana’s doorstep. What’s more, the MFIs do not charge any interest on the credit extended to the kiranas [Economic Times]

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