Washington, D.C., March 26, 2020 — The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) today became the 34th development finance institution to join IFC’s Master Cooperation Agreement, making it easier for the two institutions to collaborate on expanding private sector investments in African and Middle East infrastructure and boost jobs and economic growth. EAIF, which is a public private partnership, is the first third party fund to sign up to the IFC’s Master Cooperation Agreement.
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, plays a key role in mobilizing private capital to accelerate development in emerging markets. Its Master Cooperation Agreement standardizes steps that lenders take when co-financing projects with IFC. This streamlined approach saves time and money for borrowers—private companies in emerging markets—and lenders. Lenders who adopt the agreement benefit from IFC’s $16-billion loan-syndication platform, global presence, and expertise in deal-structuring expertise and due diligence.
Established by Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) in 2002, EAIF raises its capital from governments, private sector banks and financial institutions, and development finance institutions. The Fund’s objective is to mobilize capital from public and private sources to lend to businesses creating, improving or expanding infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Last year, EAIF signed 8 projects in 4 sectors in 7 African countries. In 2020 its loan commitments are expected to exceed US$1 billion. EAIF is managed by the Africa-headquartered asset managers, Ninety One (formerly Investec Asset Management).
Martijn Proos, a director at Ninety One , said: “The MCA is an exciting development for the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund. It helps widen and deepen our new business pipeline. It will accelerate the time it takes to get good projects financed and deliver efficiencies in human resources and legal and administrative costs.”
John Gandolfo, IFC Vice President and Treasurer , said: “ This agreement with the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund means the addition of another key partner to our network of MCA signatories. It also complements IFC’s longstanding focus on helping African clients fill Africa’s infrastructure gap.”
IFC created the MCA in 2009, in response to calls by the Group of 20 nations for official finance institutions to collaborate more closely to help meet shortfalls in private sector financing during the global financial crisis. Since then, IFC has syndicated more than $26 billion in parallel loans for clients—nearly half of which has come from MCA signatories. Click here for a full list of the signatories.
About IFC
IFC—a sister organization of the World Bank and member of the World Bank Group—is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. We work with more than 2,000 businesses worldwide, using our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities where they are needed most. In fiscal year 2019, we delivered more than $19 billion in long-term financing for developing countries, leveraging the power of the private sector to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity. For more information, visit www.ifc.org .
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About EAIF
The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund provides a variety of debt products to infrastructure projects promoted mainly by private sector businesses in sub-Saharan Africa. It is part of PIDG. EAIF was established and substantially funded by the governments of the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and Sweden. It raises its debt capital from public and private sources, including Allianz, the global insurance and financial services company; Standard Chartered Bank; the African Development Bank; the German development finance institution, KFW,and FMO, the Dutch development bank. The Fund helps create the infrastructure framework that is essential to sustained economic stability, business confidence, job creation and poverty reduction. It has to date supported nearly 80 infrastructure projects across nine sectors in 21 sub-Saharan African countries. EAIF is managed by Investec Asset Management. For more information, visit www.eaif.com
About PIDG
The Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) is an innovative infrastructure development and finance organisation which encourages and mobilises private investment in pioneering infrastructure in the frontier markets of sub-Saharan Africa and south and south-east Asia to promote economic development and combat poverty. PIDG delivers its ambition in line with its values of opportunity, accountability, safety, integrity and impact. Since 2002, PIDG has supported 183 infrastructure projects to financial close and provided 243 million people with access to new or improved infrastructure. PIDG is funded by six governments (the UK, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia, Sweden, Germany) and the IFC. For more information, visit www.pidg.org
About Ninety One
Ninety One is one of the largest third party investors in private equity, credit, public equity and sovereign debt across the African continent. The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) is managed by and fully integrated into Ninety One’s African investment platform. Ninety One manages the entire process on behalf of the EAIF. It markets the Fund, seeks projects, evaluates loan applications, including due diligence, manages transaction administration and monitors the loan portfolio. Since May 2016, when it was awarded the management mandate, Ninety One and its EAIF team have closed over 20 infrastructure transactions with a capital value of USD 650m. The team also led EAIF’s last round of fundraising, raising US$385 million, including US$100 million from Allianz Global Investors and US$50 million from Standard Chartered, a long-standing lender to EAIF.
Ninety One is an independent, active global asset manager listed on the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges. In February 2020 it had over US$ 142 billion of assets under management. Established in South Africa in 1991, as Investec Asset Management, the firm was a pioneer in emerging markets in Africa. In 2020, almost three decades of organic growth later, the firm de-merged from Investec Group and became Ninety One. Today, Ninety One offers distinctive, active strategies across equities, fixed income, multi-asset and alternative investments to institutions, advisors and individual investors around the world. For more information, visit www. ninetyone.com/en/united-kingdom/
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