Micro-lender CreditAccess Grameen Ltd will be raising up to Rs 900 crore through an initial public offer (IPO) early next month. The Bengaluru-based microfinance institution (MFI), formerly known as Grameen Koota Financial Services Pvt Ltd, will be filing a Red Herring Prospectus (RHP) with the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), its Chief Financial Officer B.R. Diwakar told BusinessLine .

The Draft Red Herring Prospectus has already been approved by the regulator. The plan is to launch the issue in early August. The company proposes to sell up to 10.2 million shares of the company, which accounts for 7 per cent of the total paid-up capital, the CFO said.

The funds will primarily be utilised as growth capital and will be used for lending. "We should be able to utilise the money for the next 24 months. It will be the main ingredient for leveraging."

With a total outstanding portfolio of Rs 3,937 crore as on September 2017 (according to the DRHP filing), CreditAcecess Grameen now has 16.06 lakh active customers. Credit Access holds 99 per cent stake in the MFI, which operates in five states -- Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

It has 440 branches in 112 districts with 5,267 employees. The capital to risk weighted assets ratio is at 29 per cent and 2.4 per cent net NPAs.

comment COMMENT NOW