Vietnamese lender Nam A Bank has secured $ 20 million in debt funding from Swiss impact investment manager BlueOrchard Finance, per an announcement.
The investment, made by BlueOrchard Microfinance Fund, will be used by the lender to expand its small and medium enterprises loan portfolio.
Nam A Bank, a mid-tier Vietnamese lender established 30 years ago, was listed on the local stock exchange in October 2020. Its current market cap stands at around 8.13 trillion dong ($244.5 million). The bank had total assets worth nearly 180 trillion dong at the end of last year, while its profit before tax was 2.27 trillion dong, up 26% from 2021, according to information on its website.
As of December 2022, Nam A Bank has more than 200 business touchpoints, including nearly 120 traditional transaction points and 100 ONEBANK digital transaction points.
India-based TSW Capital Services advised Nam A Bank on the loan transaction.
BlueOrchard was founded in 2001 by an initiative of the UN as the world’s first commercial manager of microfinance debt investments worldwide.
To date, the firm has invested over $10 billion in more than 700 institutions across 105 different emerging and frontier countries.
Last year, BlueOrchard also participated in a $220-million loan extension to Vietnam-based SeABank to support the latter’s SME financing activities.
The Swiss investor has backed insurtech company Igloo, which has offices in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia and tech centres in China and India. BlueOrchard has also invested in India’s fintech lender Aye Finance and microfinance startup SATYA MicroCapital, among others.