The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF), a Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) company, managed by Ninety One, has announced its expanded mandate to stimulate sustainable infrastructure investment and growth in South and Southeast Asia. EAIF has been consequently renamed the Emerging Africa and Asia Infrastructure Fund (EAAIF).

Infrastructure development in Africa remains a core focus for the Fund’s objective to elevate Africa’s competitiveness in the global economy. The Fund is one of Africa’s leading impact investors and the principal provider of debt finance.

The broader scope enables the Fund to catalyse transformative infrastructure investment in dynamic growth markets in Africa and Asia, such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and to enhance the resilience of vulnerable communities in low and middle income countries affected by the climate crisis.

Emerging markets in Asia have seen an acceleration of economic growth over the past two decades.

According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the region requires an estimated $1.7 trillion annual infrastructure investment until 2030 to maintain its growth momentum, improve economic conditions for its population and respond to climate change. Rapid urbanisation rates, climate change, and extreme weather events make communities in Asia increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters, parallel to current trends in Africa.

Strategic investment in climate resilient infrastructure is urgently required, particularly in areas such as transport, power, water supply, and sanitation.

EAAIF is uniquely positioned to mobilise capital at scale to accelerate the roll-out of high-impact infrastructure projects in emerging markets.

The Fund’s expansion complements PIDG’s geographically diversified offering in Africa and Asia, which already provides guarantees; early-stage infrastructure development activities by taking an equity stake in high-risk projects; and technical assistance.

Philippe Valahu, Chief Executive Officer for PIDG remarked, “We are delighted to formally expand the Fund’s mandate. The integrated approach will enable EAAIF to benefit from PIDG’s expertise across the two regions and deliver impact at scale”.

Martijn Proos, Co-Head of EM Alternative Credit and Managing Director for EAAIF at Ninety One, noted: “As sustainable infrastructure financing becomes a more significant priority for countries across the globe, we are delighted to announce EAAIF’s expansion into Asia. This expansion enables the Fund to further diversify its portfolio, and share expertise from the team’s project, corporate and structured finance, asset management, and de-risking expertise across geographies in Asia and Africa creating economic opportunities that deliver impact and commercially sound returns.

Driving EAAIF’s operations in Asia from Singapore, Roland Janssens, Managing Director, Ninety One Esther Chan & Sumit Kanodia, Director, Ninety One, will spearhead the Fund’s origination and execution efforts in the region

Roland Janssens, Managing Director, Ninety One, said: “From a strategic base in Singapore, EAAIF will seek to invest in transformative infrastructure projects in priority sectors such as renewable energy, digital communications and transport. EAAIF will leverage PIDG and Ninety One’s strong track record of investing in Asia to support EAAIF’s participation in Asian infrastructure debt markets and accelerate the transition to a lower-carbon future”.

Ninety One, an active global investment manager, is EAAIF’s fund manager. It invests at the intersection of return and impact and aims to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns. Ninety One manages a large portfolio of assets in Asia, through various private, corporate and sovereign debt strategies. The strategic expansion of EAAIF is a significant step that will strengthen its balance sheet, diversify its portfolio, and attract investors seeking exposure to infrastructure debt opportunities in both Africa and Asia.

The Emerging Africa and Asia Infrastructure Fund (EAAIF) is a blended finance vehicle that raises and deploys public and private debt capital to transformative infrastructure projects across Africa, the Levant and South and Southeast Asia. EAAIF provides various debt products on commercial terms to infrastructure projects primarily owned, actively managed, and operated by the best in private sector expertise.

The Fund helps create the infrastructure framework that is essential to stimulate economic stability, business confidence, job creation and poverty reduction. It has to date supported 96 closed infrastructure projects across 10 sectors in well over 20 African countries.

EAAIF’s committed loan portfolio is $1.35bn invested in 20 countries and across 10 sectors.  EAAIF is part of PIDG. EAAIF was established and substantially funded by the governments of the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and Sweden. In addition, it raises its debt capital from public and private financiers. EAAIF is managed by Ninety One. www.eaif.com

The Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) is an innovative infrastructure project developer and investor which mobilises private investment in sustainable and inclusive infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa and south and south-east Asia.

PIDG investments promote socio-economic development within a just transition to net zero emissions, combat poverty and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). PIDG delivers its ambition in line with its values of pioneering, partnership, safety, inclusivity and urgency.

PIDG offers Technical Assistance for upstream, early-stage activities and concessional capital; its project development arm –InfraCo– invests in early-stage project development and project and corporate equity. PIDG credit solutions include EAAIF (the Emerging Africa and Asia Infrastructure Fund), one of the first and more successful blended debt fund in low-income markets; GuarantCo, its guarantee arm that provides credit enhancement and local currency solutions to de-risk projects; and a growing portfolio of local credit enhancement facilities, which unlocks domestic institutional capital for infrastructure financing.

Since 2002, PIDG has supported 233 infrastructure projects to financial close, which provided an estimated 228 million people with access to new or improved infrastructure. PIDG is funded by the governments of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia, Sweden, Global Affairs Canada, Germany, and the IFC. www.pidg.org

Ninety One is an active, global investment manager managing $170.9 billion in assets (as at 30/09/24). Our goal is to provide long-term investment returns for our clients while making a positive difference to people and the planet. Established in South Africa in 1991, as Investec Asset Management, the firm began as a small start-up offering domestic investments in an emerging market.

In 2020, as a global firm proud of our emerging market roots, we demerged to become Ninety One. We are committed to developing specialist investment teams organically. Our heritage and approach let us bring a different perspective to active and sustainable investing across equities, fixed income, multi-asset and alternatives to our clients – institutions, advisors and individual investors around the world.