Live blogging: SKS raises Rs. 366 crore in equity

At this morning’s session of the Microfinance India Summit, Vijay Mahajan, Chairman of BASIX, surprised much of the audience with an announcement of SKS Microfinance’s raise of Rs. 366 crore in equity ($75 million USD). Mr. Mahajan called the equity raise—SKS’s fourth—a “celebration.” This Economic Times article provides more details.

As a research center focused on the Indian microfinance sector, the Centre for Micro Finance (CMF) has followed SKS’s increasing equity rounds as the organization has become more sophisticated. Earlier this year, CMF worked with Prof. Shawn Cole of Harvard University to document SKS’s second equity round—the first investment of private equity in an Indian microfinance institution. The resulting Harvard Business School case study asks the fundamental question of how to conduct the valuation of an organization in an industry which has never had one previously.

CMF also closely tracks the increasing trend towards equity fundraising across the Indian microfinance industry. The Bankers Institute of Rural Development (BIRD) commissioned CMF to conduct a study on the equity investment and microfinance, which should be published in 2009.