In the month of October, this blog ran a series of posts on the SKS IPO. It was meant to spur discussion and present a variety of voices on the issue. It did, thanks to the authors (Rasmussen, Harper, Sen Sarma, Waterfield, Crawford, and Danel) as well as the lively comments by readers. From the [...]

I can honestly say that it has taken me more than three years to understand and better articulate one of the underlying concerns behind IPO’s in the microfinance industry. I can see now, that for many in the industry, debates about pricing, profitability, capital markets, investors, and welfare of clients, have a common root in [...]

My fellow bloggers have raised some interesting points on the SKS IPO, and I hope that my experience as CEO of MicroVest can help add texture to some of these themes. I want to make it clear that MicroVest and I share the belief that commercial microfinance leads to better governed and run institutions. In [...]

The CGAP paper provides an excellent source of information to understand the SKS IPO.  It also compares the two notable pure-microfinance IPOs we have seen – Compartamos and SKS.  What do these two have in common?  Where do they differ?  What lessons, if any, can we draw from studying these first two, historic events?  Do [...]

This week, as I met several social investors in the Netherlands, inviting them to provide subordinated debt to Cashpor, a nonprofit MFI in North India, on whose Board I volunteer as Vice Chair, the discussions invariably veered towards SKS and its spectacularly successful IPO. What are its commercial, ethical, and regulatory implications? It would be [...]

This is the first time that I have knowingly contributed to a ‘blog’; hence I am not familiar with medium’s etiquette.  Am I to oppose, to concur, or to add? I’ll try to do all three. Steve Rasmussen poses a number of important questions; they are mostly about the future, and about clients, which is [...]

A rare microfinance occurrence took place in late July this year. The Indian microfinance institution, SKS, became the second pure MFI globally to go public by listing its shares on the stock market. SKS is one of the largest microfinance institutions in the world with almost 6 million clients, mostly poor women living in rural [...]