Lok Capital is re-inventing strategy for social impact
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Rajiv B Lall, 55, managing director and chief executive officer of Infrastructure Development Finance Company talks unlike his peers in glamorous investment banking and private equity business despite spending over thirty years with institutions such as Warburg Pincus, Morgan Stanley and Asian Development Bank.
Lall who holds a BA degree from Oxford University and a Ph. D in Economics from Columbia University discusses world history and finance at same ease and even puts it together for better use to uplift downtrodden. Lall also shoulders founder title for social impact fund Lok Capital and has a distinct vision for making such venture capital funds work better for desired results.
Lall is currently working on a new strategy for Lok Capital’s investments through Lok Advisory services, the advisor to the fund and its parent Lok Foundation to ensure that social ventures plough back their profit and do not take it out through dividends.
“We tried to persuade micro-finance companies in our portfolio that look you are making very healthy profits and rather than making a 35% return of equity, why don’t you voluntarily cap your return on equity at 25% and plough back additional profit into the community of women that you are serving,” said Lall who did not get a positive response from the companies in the Lok’s investment portfolio.
Source: Business Standard (link opens in a new window)
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- Impact Assessment, Investing
