HYDERABAD: The pressure seems to be mounting on microfinance man Vikram Akula, once the toast of the corporate world, from within the company he founded, SKS Microfinance with the board of directors reportedly pushing for his ouster.To make things worse, he has been waging a battle on the personal front too.Ailing SKS has been in the eye of a storm ever since the microfinance sector hit turbulence in the wake of severe regulatory scrutiny of the industry’s loan recovery practices. Now, specualtion is rife regarding the exit of Akula, reportedly due to pressure from the company’s high-profile board members.Owing to a tighter regulatory environment, the company’s loan book has been shrinking even as recovery rates have fallen to about 10 per cent in Andhra Pradesh.To add to these woes, banks froze fresh lending, while private investors seem to be getting restive.SKS posted a net loss of `218.7 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2011 as against a profit after tax of `66.6 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2010. The times have changed for SKS.The association of some of the big names like Vinod Khosla, the most successful venture capitalist in the world, Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy and Harvard Business School professor Dr Tarun Khanna besides the interest of private equity funds such as Sandstone Capital, Sequoia and the George Soros-led Quantum once catapulted SKS into a promising for-profit enterprise. When SKS hit the bourses in August 2010, its IPO was oversubscribed. But within a few months of listing, investors started dumping shares and the scrip tanked from a healthy `1,490.95 per share in September 2010 to an all-time low of `188.45 on Friday on the BSE.“SKS is a case of extreme optimism turning to extreme pessimism.Clearly, the loans extended earlier will now be reported as bad loans due to the new provisioning norms.The markets are extremely sensitive to that.The fact is that the FIIs had built up a position here but buyers are missing in this uncertain environment.So this overhang of selling will remain till a large buyer turns up and considers the risk reward as favourable,” Pankaj Chopra, research analyst at Shanti Asset Managemet Company, told Express.Adding to Akula’s woes is Malini Byanna, his estranged wife, who wants to drag him to court once again seeking the custody of their son.According to Byanna, who lost the case in a local family court earlier, now intends to appeal in the High Court. “On June 23 the family court gave the full custody of the child (to Akula).I have been talking to my legal advisors to file an appeal in the higher court,” she said, adding, “This legal battle left me bankrupt.Due to frequent traveling and legal expenses, I am now sitting on a debt-pile of $1 million.He (Akula) is making me choose between my son and my livelihood.But I am not giving up,” says Byanna. Based on a petition filed by Akula in 2009, the court had earlier gave an interim order giving him temporary guardianship of their son until final orders. Byanna and Akula were married in Illinois on Dec.18, 1999 and separated in 2002.
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