Offering high quality investment management services in asset classes that impact the financially excluded, IFMR Investments has now rolled out ‘IFMR FImpact Long Term Multi Asset Class Fund’– a debt fund of Rs 250 crore, dedicated to provide working capital for financial inclusion enterprises in India.
The fund is registered with SEBI as a Category II Alternative Investment Fund (AIF). The current investors in the fund include leading insurance companies and IFMR Capital.
The fund will offer debt support to organisations that are active in sectors like affordable housing finance, small business loan finance, vehicle finance, agri-business finance and microfinance.
“The asset management arm of IFMR Capital housed in our subsidiary IFMR Investments is an important and valued addition in our endeavor to connect high quality originators to mainstream investors. While the first fund was exclusively focused on micro-finance, its success prompted us to extend the fund management platform across all the asset classes that IFMR Capital currently works in”, said Kshama Fernandes, Chairperson, IFMR Investments and MD, IFMR Capital.
Vineet Sukumar, CEO of IFMR Investments, on his parts, said, “The funds launched by IFMR Investments are conceived on the basis of extensive research and feedback on the capital market challenges faced by last mile originating institutions and the risk-return preferences of investors. We believe that the fund will play a path-breaking role in connecting mainstream capital markets to institutions that are at the forefront of promoting financial inclusion in India. The new fund will address the need for long term debt and hybrid capital in the target sectors while providing attractive risk adjusted returns to investors.”
Through its innovative fund structuring, IFMR Investments seeks to promote alternative debt investments by providing an investment experience similar to that of investing in a credit mutual fund.
The fund manager is expected to draw strong support from IFMR Capital for their experience in the targeted financial inclusion sectors spanning investment banking, investing, structuring and risk management.
IFMR Capital has already developed stringent underwriting guidelines as well as built significant capital market and credit history for the fund’s target sectors.
“Funds launched by IFMR Investments provide an interesting platform to provide debt capital to sectors and institutions that are not easy to take direct exposure on. The fund platform therefore serves as an important step on the basis of which future direct investments can be built in institutions that would otherwise not be present on our investment radar. The debt nature and social focus of the fund sets it apart from other AIFs and provides a good risk-reward mix,” said Sudhakar Shanbagh, CIO at Kotak Old Mutual Life Insurance, an investor in the Fund.
Image Courtesy: The Hindu
