EFG Hermes concludes advisory on GBP 125 mn London Stock Exchange IPO of world’s largest microfinance lender: Our friends at EFG Hermes announced on Friday (pdf) took microfinance lender ASA International (ASAI) public on Friday with a GBP 125 mn initial public offering on the LSE. EFG Hermes, Citigroup, Investec and Keefe, Bruyette & Woods were advisors on the transaction, the LSE noted in a statement. The transaction saw ASAI shareholder Catalyst Microfinance Investors sell 40% of the company to institutional investors at GBP 3.13 per share. “This is a milestone transaction for EFG Hermes and one that marks the firm’s first investment banking foray in frontier markets following the launch of our frontier strategy in early 2017,” said EFG Hermes Frontier CEO Ali Khalpey (at left in photo, above). “In just over 18 months since we began building our frontier platform, we have directly entered three new frontier markets; established distribution and sales capabilities in New York, London, Pakistan, Kenya, and Bangladesh; expanded our execution to cover 95% of the MSCI Emerging & Frontier Markets Index.”