New Investors for Bai Tushum

JULY, 2011 - Bai Tushum & Partners, in which Triple Jump manages an equity stake, attracts new international investors and becomes the first microfinance institution(MFI) in Kyrgyzstan to obtain a deposit license.

Blue Orchard and ResponsAbility, two Suisse MIV managers, have recently made an equity investment in Bai Tushum & Partners, a leading microfinance institution (MFI) in Kyrgyzstan

“We are happy to see that Bai Tushum successfully diversified its shareholder base,” says Mark van Doesburgh, Managing Director of Triple Jump, who invested on behalf of the ASN-Novib Microfinance fund in Bai Tushum two years ago. “With a strong shareholder base and a deposit license Bai tushum is on the right track to become a microfinance bank.” Triple Jump has equity stakes in MFIs in Latin America and Asia and is about to close new equity investments in Africa.

Bai Tushum recently increased its chartered capital to KGS 615 million (nearly 10 million euro) through the entrance of BlueOrchard Private Equity Fund S.C.A., Credit Suisse Microfinance Fund Management Company (acting on behalf of of Global Microfinance Fund ResponAbility) and an additional investment by Triple Jump in its capacity as an advisor to the ASN-Novib Microfinance Fund.

Increasing chartered capital enabled Bai Tushum to implement one of its main strategic objectives: transforming the microfinance company Bai Tushum into a microfinance bank. On 15 July 2011, Bai Tushum became the first Kyrgyzstan microfinance institution to obtain a deposit license. Initially used as a tool to promote poverty reduction and job creation, microfinance in Kyrgyzstan entered a new phase of dynamic development by launching an important product – deposits.

By launching a deposit product, Bai Tushum aims to increasing the level of financial literacy in rural areas, as well as develop a culture of savings in the Kyrgyz Republic where, until recently, people did not allocate spare cash funds to deposit accounts.

Bai Tushum has been operating in the micro-lending market since 2000, having started its activities in 1997 as an international project within the monetization ‘Food for Progress’ program conducted by the US NGO ACDI/VOCA. Today Bai Tushum has a market share of more than 22% and reaches over 34,000 micro-entrepreneurs.

Triple Jump started working with Bai Tushum in 2008, first as a lender and since 2009 as a shareholder through the ASN-Novib Microfinance Fund Fund, with a 15% share in the MFI’s capital and a Triple Jump representative on the Board.

Gulnara Shmashieva, General Manager of Bai Tushum, has always been very grateful for the Triple Jump’s support. “In 2009 Bai Tushum had to increase its capital to allow for further growth of its loan portfolio. Bai Tushum approached several social investors, including Triple Jump in its capacity as an advisor to the ASN-Novib Microfinance Fund. Triple Jump was the only social investor that could process our request on time and was willing to invest prior to Bai Tushum obtaining its deposit-taking license”, said Gulnara Shamshieva in the 2009 Annual Report of Triple Jump. “Thanks to the investment from the ASN-Novib Microfinance Fund, Bai Tushum could continue to grow its loan portfolio and attract additional financial resources from several microfinance lenders.”