Basix eyeing Rs 750 cr loan from Sidbi-led consortium

The Basix Group that runs the country's fifth-largest microfinance firm Bhartiya Samruddhi Finance is close to clinching a Rs 750-crore funding from a consortium of lenders led by Sidbi by the third week of this month, its Chairman Vijay Mahajan has said.

"We are expecting Rs 750 crore from the Sidbi-led consortium by the third week of March. Of this, Rs 350 crore will be fresh funds and the rest Rs 400 crore will be used for restructuring our existing debt," Mahajan told PTI over phone from Champaran in Bihar.

Mahajan is on a 'Shod Yatra', a nationwide tour aimed at making grassroots enquiries into the lives and livelihoods of the poor people.

 

However, a Sidbi official on condition of anonymity told PTI from Lucknow, "nothing has been finalised as yet as the proposal is only at a preliminary stage."

The six-member lenders' consortium is led by the state-run Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) and has HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Central Bank of India, Axis Bank, and IndusInd Bank as members, the 56-year-old Mahajan, who is also the president of micro-financiers' national body Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN) said.

Sidbi's MFI head P K Saha, based in Lucknow,  could not be reached for comments. Similarly, a mail to ICICI Bank was left unanswered while an HDFC Bank official refused to comment on this. Other banks could not be reached for comments.