AIIF4 exceeds fundraising target by 50%

African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), Africa’s largest dedicated sustainable infrastructure equity manager, has announced the final close of its fourth pan-African infrastructure fund which achieved its hard cap, with US$748mn raised

The African Infrastructure Investment Fund 4 (AIIF4) raised the funding from a diverse investor base across Africa, Europe, Canada, US, Middle East and Asia with an additional US$206mn approved for co-investments alongside the fund.

According to AIIM, in doing so the fund has exceeded its target by 50% with more than half of the capital coming from new investors. This has been taken as a demonstration of the strong show of support for the Fund’s thematic strategy, its team and regional experience, and its high-quality cornerstone portfolio.

AIIM has indicated that through the AIIF4 mandate, the organisation is doubling down on its commitment to tackling climate change by setting decarbonisation and energy efficiency goals and maximising emissions avoidance opportunities through renewable energy deployment for each investment. The Fund is also a 2X Challenge Fund through AIIM’s strategies to enhance gender diversity across its investment teams and the management teams across portfolio companies.

“Given the challenging global fundraising environment, we are delighted to have outperformed the targeted fund size,” remarked Paul Frankish, AIIM’s head of strategic initiatives. “We received strong support from our existing investor base with a high level of re-ups from the supporters of our previous mandates which served to anchor the fundraising. We have also seen many new investors seeking to diversify their investment allocations into new markets which they consider provide strong long-term growth potential, as well as seeking investments with well-defined sustainability and impact strategies.

“These investors have all sought to enter Africa, as a new market with high growth and impact potential, alongside AIIM due to our long track record in the region and strong on-the-ground local presence.”

Olusola Lawson, AIIM's managing director and co-CEO, added, “In developing the strategy we have focused on key themes which provide investors with long-term growth driven by structural deficits and secular tailwinds rather than volatile macro-economic cycles. This includes digital infrastructure, to capitalise on the surge in data consumption across the continent; energy transition, to address the chronic shortage of affordable power and the associated productivity losses for Africa’s corporates; and transport, ports and logistics, to meet the demands for moving goods and people through the world’s most rapidly urbanising cities. All investments by the fund are specifically tracked against climate, gender and governance objectives.”

Earlier in the year, AIIM achieved financial close on two wind farms in South Africa to supply renewable energy for Rio Tinto’s operations. Click here to learn more.