Intends to commit up to US$500m to back impactful businesses
and projects in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean
India – 16th October 2023 – 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 (ILX), an SDG and Climate-Focused Emerging Market Private Debt Fund. This MoU is a sign of our shared intent to co-finance up to US$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, 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 per cent of private credit globally, and is the natural next step for allocators of global private credit.”
Manfred Schepers, CEO, ILX Management B.V., said “ILX has already received over US$1 billion in commitments from leading Dutch pension funds and is currently raising a successor fund for a targeted US$ 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.”
Andrew Mitchell, UK Minister for Development and Africa, said “This MoU with ILX is an example of British International Investment’s pioneering approach to mobilising the private finance needed to deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals. I am proud that FCDO provided early-stage funding to ILX, which went on to secure over US$1 billion in commitments to its first investment fund.
This new partnership will mobilise up to US$500m of additional finance for low-income countries across Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, improving access to renewable energy and quality infrastructure and helping businesses to thrive.”
About British International Investment
- British International Investment is the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor.
- BII is a trusted investment partner to businesses in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.
- It invests to support the UK Government’s Clean Green Initiative and to create productive, sustainable and inclusive economies in our markets.
- Over the next five years, at least 30 per cent of BII’s total new commitments by value will be in climate finance.
- In 2022, 46 per cent of our commitments were in climate finance. We invested £591 million to help emerging economies reduce emissions, protect the environment and adapt to the changing climate.
- BII is also a founding member of the 2X Challenge which raised over $16 billion to empower women’s economic development from 2021-2022. BII invested $813 million in 2X qualified businesses in 2022.
- The company has investments in over 1,470 businesses in emerging economies across 65 countries and total assets of £8.1 billion.
- For more information, visit: www.bii.co.uk | watch here
About ILX
ILX Management B.V. is the Amsterdam-based manager of ILX Fund I, an emerging market focused private debt fund that invests in loan participations originated and structured by Multilateral Development Banks and other Development Finance Institutions. ILX aims to create large scale investment opportunities in global development finance that directly contribute to sustainable development and Climate Finance objectives across the emerging markets and developing economies. ILX was created with grant support from the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation (KfW) on behalf of the German Ministry for Development Cooperation (BMZ), the Netherlands’s Directorate General for International Cooperation and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
For more information: www.ilxfund.com
