African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), together with Helios Investment Partners, one of the largest Africa-focused private investment firms, has acquired the stake of Starsight Power Utility Ltd
AIIM has acquired its stake through its African Infrastructure Investment Fund 3 (AIIF3), as part of a US$30mn equity round, to invest primarily across the power, transportation and energy infrastructure sub-sectors in sub-Saharan Africa.
Starsight is a Nigeria-based energy services company providing solar-diesel-battery hybrid and cooling and lighting solutions to its commercial and industrial clients. The company is in the process of rolling out its services to a number of customers in the financial services and energy sectors, and has a target pipeline of more than 1000 sites in the medium term.
Commenting about the acquisition, Olusola Lawson, investment director and head of West Africa at AIIM, said, “As long-term infrastructure investors, we want to make both a positive and sustainable impact, as well as targeting investments with attractive return profiles. Nigeria must address its significant power supply deficit to spur the economic growth required to create jobs for its fast-growing population.”
Tony Carr, CEO of Starsight, noted, “The company’s off-grid energy-saving and cooling solutions are focused on delivering clean power to the customers while reducing waste through innovation.”
Apart from Starsight, AIIM has made several other investments on behalf of the AIIF3 fund including AIIM Hydroneo, a pan-African hydro power development platform, DSM Corridor Group, a specialist dry bulk terminal operator in Tanzania, Albatros Energy Mali, a 90MW thermal power station, and Amandi Energy Limited, a 200MW thermal power station in Ghana.
