SKS Mircofinance completes Rs 215 crore in debt securitisation

MUMBAI: Micro-lender SKS Microfinance today said it has completed another round of securitisation by passing on receivables of Rs 215 crore to a private sector bank.

Receivables from loans extended to over 2.50 lakh women entrepreneurs, which qualify as priority sector loans under the RBI guidelines, were downloaded to a special purpose vehicle and the pass-through certificates have been purchased by a "major private sector bank", it said.

Under the PSL guidelines, banks are mandated to lend nearly 40 per cent of their annual lending to the priority sector.

This takes the total amount of securitisation transactions carried out by SKS during the fiscal to Rs 616.81 crore, its chief financial officer S Dilli Raj was quoted as saying in a statement.

The loans are from 14 non-Andhra Pradesh states, it said. It can be noted that Andhra Pradesh, once the most lucrative micro-finance market, is facing challenging issues for the sector following allegations of coercive practices used by micro-lenders which allegedly pushed some debtors to commit suicide.

The pool is rated A + (SO) by a leading rating agency, the statement said, without giving the name of the rating agency.