Saija Finance, a microfinance company backed by the International Finance Corporation, plans to raise working capital of up to Rs 400 crore via external commercial borrowing and debentures.
To fund aggressive growth, the Patna-based entity has got IFMR Capital to help raise Rs 50 crore in new equity. It plans to raise tier-II capital of $3-5 million (Rs 19-32 crore) within the next six months, said S R Sinha, chairman and managing director. This will pick up steam in the later part of the financial year, when the small banking licence scenario becomes clear.
The capital adequacy at March-end was 71.67 per cent. Saija has a cash base of Rs 60 crore.
The aim is to expand the active client base from 100,000 (Rs 112 crore loan portfolio) to 300,000 (Rs 325 crore) in 2015-16. At present, it operates in 11 districts of Bihar and three in Jharkhand. It would expand into eastern UP.
Saija plans to extend loans of almost Rs 5,000 crore within five years of becoming a small finance bank, at an interest rate of around 15.5 per cent, on a monthly reducing rate, said Sinha.
It has hired Deloitte to help shape a five-year business model as a small finance bank and to provide technical support for the change, he added.
Beside the Sinha family, US micro-finance major Accion is a stakeholder in Saija. IFC, equity and debt investment arm of the World Bank Group, holds stake through the Pragati Fund (corpus $70 million).
