Following is a letter sent to the Editor of the Financial Times:
Sir,
Franck Riboud is to be heartily congratulated for finding ways to open business opportunities for the needy in the countries in which his company does business, with the promotion of microfinancing programmes, even more legitimized with the most recent Nobel Peace prize ("Danone's taste for microfinance pays dividends" Financial Times, March 30, 2007).
His success is accompanied by the clear business proposition for his company’s activities, in addition to the assistance programme being implemented.
It is surprising to see so many multinationals with a presence in many needy countries and with the will to do better and yet still creating such a limited impact at the lower levels of the societies in which they do business. Microfinance is an ideal bridge for them to be able to do more.
Specifically, it is surprising that the mainstream financial institutions present in these countries have, until very recently, been noticeable by their material absence in these activities. These are organizations with knowledge of lending, with a presence in many of these countries, and who would benefit directly as their microfinance clients, in time, can become clients of their more traditional banking products and services.
This has begun changing but let us hope that financial institutions with a presence in these countries participate much more actively than they have to date.
Onésimo Alvarez-Moro
See article:
Franck Riboud is a romantic at heart. The chairman of French food multinational Danone is also an astute businessman with a particular nose for marketing. Yet he seems to be managing to combine his passionate commitment for social responsibility with the more humdrum prerogatives of business and maximising profits.
His latest plan is to launch next month with the help of French banking group Crédit Agricole a novel mutual fund to invest in microfinancing projects in the world's poorest countries. It will be called the Danone Communities Fund and the idea is to raise initially some €100m to fund microfinancing investments in countries such as Bangladesh, where Danone is already heavily involved in a pioneering social business model.
The French group will invest about €20m in the new fund, which is attracting interest from investors ranging from big funds and socially committed individuals to trade unions. They need not worry too much over the safety of their investment.
Like other French mutual funds it will yield about 4 per cent a year and will invest only part of its funds in new microfinance projects. Danone will also encourage shareholders to reinvest dividends into the new fund.
See full Article (paid subscription required).
Posts
