Grameen Crédit Agricole Social Business Fund … accompanying Social Businesses … The Grameen Crédit Agricole Microfinance Foundation, which results from a unique partnership between Crédit Agricole and Professor Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize 2006, is launching a pioneering Social Business Fund for socially motivated investors. Social Business, a concept invented and successfully tested by Professor Yunus Social Business, as defined by Professor Yunus, is an innovative approach, at the intersection of entrepreneurship and solidarity. Social Business mobilises entrepreneurship to serve the fight against poverty and provide access for the poorest to food, health, education, housing, energy, information… In a Social Business enterprise, the social mission is at the heart of its strategy. Its sustainability is ensured by its economic performance. Social Business enterprises must show profits, but these are used to improve or make more affordable products or services offered, or to fund other Social Business enterprises. Social Businesses are not looking for the enrichment of investors but for the creation of social value. This social value must be reflected in appropriate social indicators.
The Grameen Crédit Agricole Social Business Fund (GCA Fund) The GCA Fund will be entirely invested in Social Business enterprises, in developing and emerging countries. This Fund will pursue social goals similar to traditional philanthropy. But it will seek greater economic and social efficiency for each euro invested by investing, in the form of equity and loans, in Social Business enterprises that are based on a sustainable business model and an indisputable social mission.
Legal Status and Governance The fund will be a Specialised Investment Fund (SIF) under the laws of Luxembourg, organised as a SICAV. The Board of Directors of the SICAV will consist of representatives of the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation, and other investors and qualified individuals. The Foundation will be both a significant investor in the Fund and its exclusive investment policy advisor. Following internal committees, and field due-diligence assignments by the Foundation team, the files will be submitted to the Fund's Investment Committee established by the Board of Directors that will validate the investments.
The Grameen Crédit Agricole Social Business Club Investors willing to be more closely involved in the life and development of the GCA Fund, through field visits, meetings with social entrepreneurs, newsletters and dialogue opportunities with Pr. Yunus, will be invited to join the GCA Social Business Club. They will have the opportunity to support the operations of the Fund through their expertise and network.
Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation The Grameen Crédit Agricole Microfinance Foundation is dedicated to reducing poverty through microfinance and Social Business. It is the result of a unique partnership between Crédit Agricole (the largest bank in France) and Professor Muhammad Yunus, the “Banker of the poor”, founder of Grameen Bank. At its inception in 2008, the Foundation was endowed with € 50 million by Crédit Agricole SA and leans on a team of 17 professionals to carry out its mission. In four years, the Foundation has approved 60 projects in over 20 countries1 and takes an active part in the debate on Microfinance and Social Business, designed as economic tools to address social problems, especially poverty and financial exclusion. 1
as of end June 2012