Bandhan targets 30% growth

Bandhan Financial Services set a 30% growth target for 2012-13 after growing by 50% last fiscal.

Bandhan aims to enhance its outstanding loan portfolio to Rs 4,850 crore by end of this fiscal from Rs 3,739 crore on March 2012.

It plans to raise Rs 2,500 crore worth of resources this year to lend to poor people.

""We are reviewing the new securitisation guidelines as it would impact our fund raising strategy,"" said Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, the chairman and managing director of India's largest microfinance company by outstanding loan.

The new operational guidelines would bring down the possibility of exponential growth and encourage the micro lenders to consolidate their businesses.

"We are told to provide two-year loans instead of one year and therefore the scope to step up the loan every year does not exist any more," said Ghosh.

The Kolkata-based MFI operates in 18 states through a network of 1,553 branches. It has catered to over 37 lakh poor borrowers.

Bandhan inked securitisation deals worth Rs 723 crore last fiscal, including one Rs 500-crore transaction with IDBI Bank.

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