May 4th, 2006
Morgan Stanley Issues MicroFinance Bonds
Is Wall Street waking up to the promise of Microfinance?
Tom Marshall of the WSJ writes.
BlueOrchard Finance SA, a Swiss investment-management boutique, has teamed up with Morgan Stanley to turn these loans — called microfinance — into bonds, using the capital markets to provide small business in the developing world with long-term financing.
The five-year deal raised almost $100 million from bond investors through BOLD 2006-1, a special-purpose finance vehicle backed by loans to 21 microfinance institutions. While it’s not a huge transaction by bond-market standards, it’s the first time investors have been able to buy into microfinance through a bond issue. It could be the first step in a revolution in how money is raised to pay for development in the third world — and it could also give yield-hungry bond investors a whole new asset class to put their money to work in.
Also covered at the FT
- Posted in : Micro-Finance
- Author : Emeka
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