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African infrastructure projects beat Europe to win awards
11:43 CAT | 15 May 2018
File photo: EAIF
Two infrastructure projects backed by the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF), a company of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), have won in two categories of the Partnerships Awards, it was announced in London on 10th May. PIDG is funded by donors from seven countries (UK, Switzerland, Australia, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany) and the World Bank Group.
Best Utilities Project went to Rwanda’s Kigali Water Limited (KWL). Madagascar’s Ravinala Airports won Best Transport Project. Kigali Water was also named as the winner of the Projects Grand Prix, the top overall award for infrastructure. Both projects faced competition from infrastructure developments across the globe, including from the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. PIDG’s DevCo and its Technical Assistance Facility (TAF) also played key roles in the development and financing of the Kigali project.
The Partnerships Awards is the world’s largest event recognising and rewarding the best in Public Private Partnerships that provide essential infrastructure.
EAIF provides a variety of debt products to infrastructure projects promoted mainly by private sector businesses in sub-Saharan Africa. It helps create the infrastructure framework that is essential to sustained economic stability, business confidence, job creation and poverty reduction. To date, it has supported over 60 infrastructure projects across eight sectors in 21 sub-Saharan African countries.
EAIF-backed projects have now won six prestigious awards from specialist publications and organisations this year and have been nominated for two further awards by Africa Investor magazine. EAIF is managed by Investec Asset Management. Last year, Investec closed 10 projects on behalf of EAIF, lending US$200 million to projects in water, transport, renewable and traditional energy and telecommunications.
EAIF was the lead arranger of the debt finance on the Kigali Water project, which is owned by Metito, one of the world’s most experienced builders and operators of water treatment facilities. The Kigali plant will benefit some 500,000 people and deliver 40 million litres of clean water daily.
EAIF lent US$19 million of Senior Debt and US$2.6 million of Junior Debt to KWL. The TAF provided a US$6.25 million grant, which was a key element in bringing together the financing of the US$60.8 million project. Another PIDG company, DevCo, which is managed by the International Finance Corporation, provided initial financial support to the Government of Rwanda for the environmental, feasibility, financial, legal and technical assessments of the project.
Ravinala Airports is a Madagascar-registered company owned by Meridiam, an independent investment firm specialising in the development, financing, and management of long-term and sustainable public infrastructure projects. It is upgrading, moderising and expanding the facilities at two of Madagascar’s most important airports. Among the direct benefits of the project will be construction employment for locally-engaged people, and growth in the numbers permanently employed at the airports by Ravinala and in activities like security, baggage handling and retail. The project is expected to deliver c€3 million in taxes to the Malagasy government, over the first five years of the project.
Chair of EAIF, Patrick Crawford, says,
“We are proud and delighted to be so closely involved with these two innovative projects. To have won against competition from so many infrastructure developments in highly advanced economies demonstrates the quality and vision of the companies we work with, the great advances being made by stable governments across Africa and the strong development ethos of PIDG. For Kigali Water to go on to win the Grand Prix award is a supreme endorsement of KWL, of the EAIF business model and all involved in the PIDG family.”
Africa Investor magazine has nominated EAIF in the Project Development Fund of the Year and the Africa Sponsor of the Year categories. Another PIDG company, InfraCo Africa, has also been nominated in the Project Development Fund of the Year category. The winners will be announced on 18th June, during the Infrastructure Project Developers Summit being held in Mauritius.
In April, the KWL project won Water Deal of the Year at the World Water Summit in Paris. In London, in March it won IJGlobal’s Africa Water Deal of the Year. In February, Ravinala Airports won Thomson Reuters Project Finance International magazine’s Middle East and Africa region 2017 Transport Deal of the Year Award in London.
About EAIF
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. EAIF is managed by Investec Asset Management.
About PIDG
The Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) encourages and mobilises private investment in infrastructure in the frontier markets of sub-Saharan Africa, south and south-east Asia, to help promote economic development and combat poverty. Since 2002, PIDG has mobilised US$31.4bn from private sector investors and DFIs, supported 154 infrastructure projects to financial close and provided 222 million people with access to new or improved infrastructure. PIDG is funded by donors from seven countries (UK, Switzerland, Australia, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany) and the World Bank Group.
www.pidg.org
About Investec Asset Management
Investec Asset Management is an independently managed subsidiary of Investec Group. Investec Asset Management is a specialist investment manager, providing a premier range of products to institutional and individual investors. Established in 1991, the firm has been built from start-up into an international business managing more than US$141bn* on behalf of third party clients. The business has grown largely organically from domestic roots in Southern Africa to a position where we proudly serve a growing international client base from the Americas, the UK and Continental Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Australia and Africa. The firm seeks to create a profitable partnership between clients, shareholders and employees, and to exceed expectations for both client service and performance.
*As at end December 2017
www.investecassetmanagement.com
Source: EAIF / Press Release
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