LankaBangla gets $15 million loan from BlueOrchard Microfinance Fund

LankaBangla Finance Limited, one of the leading NBFIs in Bangladesh, has received a loan of $15 million from BlueOrchard Microfinance Fund for economic, environmental and social development of country.

BlueOrchard Microfinance Fund is managed by a Switzerland based impact fund manager BlueOrchard Finance Limited, said a press release.

This is the second cross border debt transaction for LankaBangla after it received its maiden foreign funding in 2019 from Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD).

BlueOrchard seeks to contribute for economic, environmental, and social development and provide financial services to the marginal and medium enterprises, mainly in emerging markets.

For BlueOrchard, this is their first entry in the Bangladeshi market and LankaBangla is the first Bangladeshi recipient institution of their financing.

The loan will be utilized to cater to the financing needs of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and green and sustainable projects as LankaBangla will focus on assisting SMEs to recover from the effects of the pandemic.

Normunds Mizis, Chief Credit Officer of BlueOrchard Finance, said "It has been a great pleasure to execute transaction in Bangladesh with LankaBangla Finance Limited."

"BlueOrchard Finance will continue its support to the financial institutions for the needs of micro, small and medium businesses and to economic, environmental and social development broadly.", he said.

Khwaja Shahriar, Managing Director and CEO of LankaBangla Finance Limited, said "As we received the fund at a competitive rate of interest, we will be able to shift the same benefits to our end-clients, especially SMEs and emerging sectors."  

The transaction has been arranged by the Green Delta Capital Limited, which is also acting as the security agent on behalf of BlueOrchard Microfinance Fund in this transaction.

Md Rafiqul Islam, Managing Director and CEO of Green Delta Capital told, "Green Delta Capital Limited has always been enthusiastic about reaching newer heights and it has brought BlueOrchard on board for the first time ever in Bangladesh where entire due-diligence were done digitally."

Investment in LankaBangla from investors like Blue Orchard will also help to unlock more foreign financing in Bangladesh, he added.