NBFC microfinance company Fusion Micro Finance on Friday said it has entered into a $25 million loan agreement with the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). Out of the total facility, $20 million in initial disbursement has been received by the company, in line with the extant External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) guidelines.
Fusion Micro Finance said the funds will be deployed towards growing its business operations in India to enable financial inclusion for women entrepreneurs in rural India.
The partnership is “in sync with the company’s strategy to tap varied sources of funds and diversify our liability mix,” said Gaurav Maheshwari, Chief Financial Officer, Fusion Micro Finance.
“This borrowing will help in expanding our business operations and loan growth. It is an eight-year loan which will further strengthen our asset-liability mix. We are confident that this landmark transaction will open doors for larger pools of international capital to fund our future growth plans,” said Maheswari.
Founded in 2010, Fusion Micro Finance has an Asset under Management (AUM) of Rs 11,476 crores. In FY24, the AUM grew 23.45 per cent year-on-year to Rs 11,476.08 crore from Rs 9,296.22 crore in FY23. Disbursements, on the other hand, jumped 19.76 per cent from Rs 8,596.11 crore in FY23 to Rs 10,294.35 crore in FY24.
The company’s net NPA (non-performing assets) stood at 0.60 per cent while borrower-based increased from around 35.3 lakhs to around 38.6 lakhs.
Meanwhile, bank credit to the MSME sector under priority sector lending during March this year stood at Rs 24.67 lakh crore, according to the latest data on sectoral deployment by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The credit deployment in March grew by 19.2 per cent from Rs 20.69 lakh crore deployed in March 2023.
Total bank credit to MSMEs under priority sector lending in March was 15 per cent of Rs 164.11 lakh crore in India’s non-food credit during the month, FE Aspire had reported.