LOLC Holdings Plc, Sri Lanka’s second-largest publicly traded company by revenue, plans to sell its stake in a unit in Cambodia and use the proceeds to fund acquisition of microfinance firms in emerging markets from Brazil to India.
LOLC Holdings plans to sell its 70% stake in Prasac Microfinance Institution Ltd., which also counts Hong Kong’s Bank of East Asia Ltd. as a shareholder, LOLC’s Deputy Chairman Ishara Nanayakkara said. He declined to disclose pricing details.
“It is very large as a micro finance institution. I think Prasac needs to move to a bank,” Nanayakkara, 46, said in an interview at LOLC’s headquarters in Colombo. The company’s 30% return on equity in Cambodia, which has a largely dollarized economy, makes it attractive, he said.
