Gojo & Company, Inc. (“Gojo”) is pleased to announce the completion of the INR 830 million inter-company loans to SATYA MicroCapital Ltd. (“SATYA”) and Ananya Finance for Inclusive Growth Pvt. Ltd. (“Ananya”), Gojo’s group companies in India, through Non-Convertible Debentures (NCDs). This initiative was funded by JPY 1 billion bond issuance to MARUI GROUP CO., LTD. (“Marui Group”) and JPY 0.5 billion social loan from Shizuoka Bank, Ltd. (“Shizuoka Bank”).
Gojo has successfully completed INR 830 million inter-company loans to SATYA and Ananya through NCDs. Gojo has been newly registered as Foreign Portfolio Investor (“FPI”) by Securities and Exchange Board of India. This is an important milestone for Gojo to have opened a channel to direct the debt financing from Japan to the group companies in India. This is the first transaction for Gojo to formulate inter-company loans to group companies in India and Gojo aims to leverage its group scale to optimize funding costs through debt financing in Japan.
SATYA will provide micro-credit loans to micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises mainly run by women. Ananya plans to expand its retail lending for low-income clients through partnerships with microfinance institutions.
As announced on March 8 2022, Marui Group has issued two types of Social Bonds; security token bonds (“digital bonds”) for EPOS Card holders, and corporate bonds for individual investors, as part of its “Supportive Investment” initiatives to achieve balancing social contribution and asset formation. Marui Group obtained a Second-Party Opinion on the Social Bonds from Morningstar Sustainalytics, a leading global provider of ESG research, ratings, and data. The Social Bonds use of proceeds will be eligible for the following categories: access to essential services, and socioeconomic advancement and empowerment. Morningstar Sustainalytics confirmed that the use of proceeds aligns with those recognized by the Social Bond Principles 2021 (please refer to the Second-Party Opinion Report).
The funds received by Marui Group from individual investors through the purchase of the bonds are used for the investments in projects of Gojo and CROWD CREDIT, Inc. Gojo executed a JPY1.0 billion bond agreement with Marui Group.
Message from Taejun Shin, Representative Executive Officer
As a collaboration through “Co-Creation” with Marui Group who has been Gojo’s shareholder since 2019, we are pleased to provide individual investors with the opportunity to join “Supportive investment” balancing social contribution and asset formation.
For inclusive financial service providers in developing countries, high funding cost is one of the major challenges. Gojo continues to work on optimizing funding cost by pursuing global scale and risk diversification, building strong relationships with Japanese financial institutions and individual investors, and diversifying financing methods.
About Gojo & Company:
Gojo is a Tokyo-based holding company of inclusive financial service providers. Since 2014, Gojo has invested in nine entities, operating in Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, India, and Tajikistan. Gojo was founded to extend financial inclusion across the globe. Gojo encourages the formalization and growth of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Our long-term goal is to enable the provision of high-quality affordable financial services for 100+ million unserved and underserved people in 50+ countries by 2030. Established in 2014, Gojo is serving more than 1.2 million clients and managing an aggregated AUM of ~USD 651 million with 8,000 employees.
