AAIM secures $80m for sustainable infrastructure investments in sub-Saharan Africa
African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), Africa infrastructure-focused private equity fund managers, has successfully completed a capital increase of $80 million for its flagship pan-African infrastructure fund, AIIF3.
The capital increase takes the total commitments for AIIF3 to $400 million and represents one of the largest capital raises closed for an African fund since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. AIIF3 was established to continue the mandate and strategy developed for AIIM’s AIIF2 fund by targeting infrastructure investments in the power, transport, digital infrastructure and midstream energy sectors across sub-Saharan Africa.
To date, the fund has concluded investments in nine assets, with the additional commitments expected to be deployed across a further two transactions in the energy and digital infrastructure sectors as well as the growth requirements for existing platforms within the portfolio.
Paul Frankish, Investment Director, AIIM: “We are delighted with the continued faith placed in AIIM’s strategy for AIIF3 by some of the most experienced African fund investors. AIIF3 continues its strategy of targeting mid-market opportunities, focusing on executing deals in the $20 million-$60 million range – a space we believe is less competitive and carries less execution risk than some of the large-cap deals. This allows us to consider strategic deals in countries with high-growth prospects and sectors that have shown greater resilience to COVID-19 impacts, without being limited to a smaller grouping of countries with the scale to support mega deals.”
Supported by the focus on mid-market deals with shorter construction periods, seven of the assets in the AIIF3 portfolio are already operational and delivering in line with their original investment thesis, with a further two assets expected to commence commercial operations in early 2021, moving the fund into the yielding stage.
AIIF3 achieved first close in May 2017 with four subsequent closes concluded before a final close in May 2019. The capital increase was open to existing LPs and closed in mid-November 2020.
