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Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque London: Microfinance is a term which encompasses the various forms of financial services promoted and provided to the poor regions of the world by Microfinance Institutions (MFIs). London-based Sphere Capital Partners, a group of investment banking specialists, has just launched its very own micro finance business. Nish Kotecha, senior partner and founder, told Opalesque what it all comes down to.

Micro finance is gaining ground fast. Bill Gates, for example, traded Microsoft for micro finance as he stepped down from Microsoft last week to focus on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Mobile phone maker Nokia is currently looking at micro finance as a major initiative to increase mobile penetration in India from the current 26%. There are thousands of small organisations around the third-world countries operating profitable micro-finance businesses. And institutional investors, private equity funds and hedge funds are also getting involved.

The entrepreneur Nish Kotecha left Lehman Brothers in 2002 and started his own corporate finance business called Sphere Partners which has done so far various corporate finance deals, predominantly with the Asian diaspora who wants to access the financial markets. Of Indian descent, he has been involved with India for the last 18 years where he was an advisor to Barclays Bank. He also writes for Indian magazines and journals and he is the UK p......................

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