BII partners with private debt fund
British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution (DFI) and impact investor has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Amsterdam-based ILX Management, a climate-focused emerging markets private debt fund. This MoU is a sign of both parties’ shared intent to co-finance up to $500 million of debt transactions to facilitate long-term sustainable development across developing economies and low-income countries in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.
BII and ILX will invest across a broad range of sectors including renewable energy, infrastructure, financial services, manufacturing and agribusiness to increase the flow of capital into impactful businesses and projects.
This new partnership will enable both parties to leverage each other’s expertise and provide additional financial firepower across Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. ILX and BII will share information on prospective projects, emerging technologies, and financial innovation. They will also establish a roadmap to mobilise private sector capital, specifically focusing on providing institutional investors with greater access to high-impact private debt investment opportunities in scalable businesses driving productive, sustainable and inclusive growth.
Nick O’Donohoe, CEO of BII said, “This partnership has been driven by our shared view of the need to invest to meet the SDGs. It furthers our ambition to create new job opportunities in developing economies and will provide private credit to help bridge the finance gap faced by many businesses. This asset class remains nascent, comprising of just 3% of private credit globally, and is the natural next step for allocators of global private credit.”
Manfred Schepers, CEO of ILX said, “ILX has already received over $1 billion in commitments from leading Dutch pension funds and is currently raising a successor fund for a targeted $2 billion commitments from European pension funds. Working with BII, together we will increase financial capacity for project finance, financial services debt and private sector debt across Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. We have a strong track record of investing alongside the leading multilateral development banks and other development finance institutions in climate, and SDG-targeted projects across emerging economies globally and look forward to the opportunities this partnership will bring.”
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