Oikocredit General Meeting votes for new capital-raising model

At an Extraordinary General Meeting held on 14 October 2022 in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, Oikocredit’s cooperative members approved a resolution that makes it possible for Oikocredit to change its articles of association in order to ‘open up’ the cooperative, allowing not only members but also other organisations and individuals to invest directly in Oikocredit.  

Oikocredit plans to introduce this new model once the required responses from regulators have been received. It expects to receive these by the end of the year. Subsequently, Oikocredit intends to start offering non-voting equity instruments called participations.  

Participations will eventually replace the shares that Oikocredit currently issues (which can only be held by members) and other investment products that are derived from such member shares and issued by Oikocredit's support associations and the Stichting Oikocredit International Share Foundation (OISF). Participations are materially similar in financial terms to the member shares currently offered by Oikocredit, and to the other investment products issued by Oikocredit's support associations and OISF. 

By eventually offering a single product (i.e. the participation), Oikocredit’s capital-raising work will become more efficient. This will allow the cooperative to invest more resources in partnerships and projects that benefit low-income communities, and in promoting sustainable development together with its global network of investors, members and partners. The new model will also be less complex, more transparent and more resilient in the face of evolving financial markets regulation, especially in the European Union. 

Even though investors eventually will no longer invest via the support associations that currently offer investment products, the support associations will continue to promote Oikocredit’s mission in their regions, nurture local communities of investors and connect them with Oikocredit and its partners. They will also continue promoting education on sustainable development together with Oikocredit. 

Mirjam ‘t Lam, Managing Director, Oikocredit, said: “We believe the change to the new model will benefit our cooperative’s members, investors, our partners and the low-income communities we serve together. We will share more detailed information as soon as the regulatory process is completed.” 

Cheryl Jackson, Supervisory Board Chair, Oikocredit, said: “We thank our cooperative members for their vote of confidence in the new capital-raising model. As a supervisory board, we have followed development of the model closely and fully support its implementation.” 

Investors can read more about the changes on their country website(s). Oikocredit’s members can read more here and in the supplement to the cooperative’s member shares prospectus (see right hand side).