Spandana Sphoorty Financial Ltd.

The Company was incorporated as Spandana Sphoorty Innovative Financial Services (SSIFSL) on March 10, 2003 at Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India as a public limited company under the Companies Act, 1956. A certificate of commencement of business was issued to SSIFSL on November 11, 2003 by the Registrar of Companies, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana at Hyderabad (RoC). On October 16, 2004, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) granted a certificate of registration bearing registration no. N-09.00414 to company, for the registration of company as a non-deposit accepting non-banking financial company (NBFC) under Section 45IA of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. Subsequently, pursuant to a special resolution dated November 26, 2007 passed by shareholders, the name of company was changed to Spandana Sphoorty Financial. Pursuant to a letter dated December 26, 2007, the RBI granted its no objection to the change of name of company to Spandana Sphoorty Financial and a fresh certificate of incorporation consequent to change of name was issued by the RoC to Company on January 3, 2008. Further, a fresh certificate of registration bearing registration no. N-09.00414 pursuant to the change of name was issued by the RBI on January 11, 2008. The Company was granted NBFC - Microfinance Institution (NBFC-MFI) status by the RBI with effect from April 13, 2015 and a modified certificate of registration bearing registration no. N-09.00414 was issued by the RBI to this effect.

Business area of the company

The company is a leading, rural focused NBFC-MFI with a geographically diversified presence in India. It offers income generation loans under the joint liability group model, predominantly to women from low-income households in Rural Areas.

Products

• Abhilasha (JLG Loans): Abhilasha stands for “Aspiration”. This unique loan is designed especially for low-income households
  
• Loans Against Property (LAP): Sometimes big ideas need small help, thus it has designed Loan Against Property known as LAP.
  
• Personal Loans: These Loans are given exclusively to Business development, Purchase of livestock, house construction/renovation or any other emergency needs.
  
• Gold Loans (Keertana): Gold Loans are given against the mortgage of Jewellery. Indian housewives hold 11% of the world's gold.
  
• Interim Loans: the company introduced Interim loans to assist borrowers who are struggling to meet short-term liquidity requirements.

Awards

• 2016: MFIN-Micrometer of March 2016
• 2016: Brand Excellence (B.E.) Awards.
• 2016: “Women Entrepreneurship Award, 2016” by CMO Asia, Singapore.
• 2016: The Best Microfinancial Company of the Year - 2016
• 2016: Best Microfinance Institution in Southern India
• 2016: Best Employer Brands Award
• 2016: Winner of Outstanding Woman Leadership Award 2016
• 2016: Women Leadership Award in Banking & Finance
• 2016: Women Leadership Award for Excellence in Banking & Finance
• 2016: MSME Banking & NBFC Excellence Awards-2016
• 2017: The Most Trusted Micro Financial Company of the year 2017
• 2017: CEO of the year 2017
• 2017: Women Achiever of the Year 2017
• 2017: Pride of Telangana Award 2017 (for Women Leadership)
• 2017: Telangana’s Best Employer Brand Award
• 2018: Awarded ‘The Best Micro Finance Company of the Year’ at the Golden Star Awards 2018 by APS Research and Media.
• 2018: Awarded ‘The Most Trusted Micro Financial Company of the Year (India)’ at the National Icon Awards (2018-2019) by APS Research and Media.
• 2020: India's Top 100 Women in Finance 2020
• 2020: India's A list for excellence in Entrepreneurship by newsX

Milestones

• 1997-98: Started operations as SRUDO, an NGO in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh.
• 1997-98: Offered multiple community welfare programs with microfinance at the core.
• 1998-99: Achieved breakeven in the first full year of operations; a breakthrough for any contemporary microfinance program.
• 2002-03: Incorporated Spandana Sphoorty Innovative Financial Services Limited (SSIFSL) on March 10, 2003 (later abridged to Spandana Sphoorty Financial Limited).
• 2002-03: SRUDO’s operations became the largest microfinance program in India.
• 2005-06: Conducted business under the NBFC licensed company setup (SSIFSL)
• 2005-06: Crossed cumulative disbursements of Rs 10,000 million.
• 2010-11: Curbed onerously by AP-MFI (regulation of money lending) Act, leading to large scale defaults in the State of Andhra Pradesh, which constituted 51% of the Portfolio; 14,000 on-roll staff.
• 2010-11: Opted for Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR) with lenders in March 2011.
• 2011-12: Signed CDR agreements with a deep restructuring of debt with tenor extension and part conversion to OCCRPS.
• 2013-14: Resumed operations in AP on a low key with help from the interim relief from Supreme Court; also helped improve overdue collections.
• 2016-17: Exited CDR Mechanism at the year-end; Raised Rs 5,140 million Equity Capital from Kangchenjunga and Kedaara AIF-1; Infused a primary Rs 3,000 million into Spandana; Set the stage for growth in coming years with capital buffer.
• 2016-17: Experienced sectoral impact on collections of MFIs following demonetization in November 2016, impacting the borrower segment.
• 2018-19: Adopted IND-AS.
• 2018-19: Witnessed strong growth and good asset quality despite multiple events like liquidity squeeze, floods, and state elections, among others.
• 2018-19: Acquired 95.97% of the equity shares of Criss Financial Holdings Limited (Criss) in December 2018 and further subscribed to issue of fresh equity shares of Criss, resulting into Spandana holding 97.54% stake in the entity.
• 2019-20: Listed on NSE and BSE on August 19, 2019.
• 2019-20: Grew the number of borrowers to 2.6 million.
• 2019-20: Became the country’s most profitable MFI in terms of PAT and PBT.
• 2019-20: Positioned as the industry leader in terms of capital adequacy, with a CAR of 47%.