British International Investment

African Infrastructure Investment Fund IV

KenyaMauritiusMoroccoNigeriaSouth AfricaAfricaCentral AfricaEast AfricaSouthern AfricaWest AfricaCommunications & IT servicesConstruction & Real estateInfrastructure

The African Infrastructure Investment Fund IV invests across Africa according to three key themes: 1. digital infrastructure (including mobile telecoms towers, datacentres, and fibre optic networks); 2. energy transition (including renewable energy generation) and; 3. mobility and logistics (including ports, roads and other supporting infrastructure).

The fund is managed by African Infrastructure Investment Managers (“AIIM”), a South Africa headquartered fund manager which has more than 20 years of experience investing in African infrastructure.

We first invested with AIIM in 2010 when we committed to African Infrastructure Investment Fund II. This was followed by a commitment to African Infrastructure Investment Fund III in 2017.

Our investment

Description of the investment.

We are an anchor investor in the fund, committing $76 million, and our investment aims to support the fund in reaching its target fund size. Our investment aims to boost renewable energy, digital infrastructure, mobility and logistics sectors.

Impact information

Applies to investments made from 2019 onwards. The tabs in this section define what we expect to achieve through the investment, assessing the potential impact of the investment against six dimensions of impact. You can find more details on our methodology of assessing impact here.

What?

Impact
  • Improve standards of living for end consumers through the provision of more and better-quality infrastructure including affordable and lower carbon energy sources, logistics and mobility, and digital infrastructure services (SDG 7.1, 7.2, 9C).
  • Improved economic opportunities for firms and households from greater productivity as a result of improved infrastructure (SDG 8.5).
  • Reduced greenhouse gas emissions from renewable energy (SDG 13A).

How?

Primary Secondary

Increase the supply of reliable and affordable transport, power and ICT infrastructure, to increase productivity, which leads to economic growth, job creation and improved quality of life.

By generating market-viable returns, AIIF IV can help demonstrate commercial returns by investing in the infrastructure sector where the perceived risk is still high. In the long term, success would be the majority of African infrastructure focused funds primarily backed by commercial investors.

Who?

Stakeholder Geography Characteristics
Consumers

Pan-Africa

Urban/peri-urban households
Employees and businesses

Pan-Africa
Planet

Pan-Africa

N/A

How much?

Scale Depth/Duration

Potential to be large-scale in nature given the types of infrastructure assets the fund targets, which in turn will impact many actors across the target sectors if proven successful.

Consumers suffering from unreliable transportation, electricity, internet will benefit from quality of life improvements, but these are expected to be greater for individuals that consume most of the product/service.

Contribution/additionality

Contribution/additionality
  • Financial additionality: We have supported AIIF IV to reach a viable first close and ultimately to reach its target fund size.
  • Value additionality: We will continue to support the strengthening of BI and ESG systems and processes.
  • Mobilisation: We have helped to mobilise funds from commercial investors for subsequent closes following both the success of the first close, and by direct engagement with investors

Risk

Unexpected Impact Risk
  • Targeted investments in transport and ICT sectors can create greenhouse gas emissions unless opportunities to decarbonise are pursued. This will be mitigated by encouraging the uptake of green data centre certification and C&I solar as well as energy and resource-efficiency considerations in transport investments.
Unexpected Impact Risk
  • We are confident that AIIF IV will not pursue any fossil fuels investments and hence is compliant with BII's policy.
Efficiency Risk
  • Expected investees are either greenfield and brownfield investments so development impact, such as reaching more consumers, increased volume, or new infrastructure services connections, will be incremental.

Impact score

Impact score (at point of investment)

The Impact Score is a tool to help us manage our performance against our strategic impact objectives. It is designed to incentivise investments that support our productive, sustainable, and inclusive objectives. You can find out more here.

The Impact Score is published for investments made from 2022 onwards. The Impact Scores are calculated at the point of investment. We publish the Impact Scores of new investments annually, once the information has been externally assured by an independent third party.

7

Understanding our impact information (PDF)

Environmental and social information

  • Environmental and social summary

    A high-level description of the environmental and social aspects of the investment. This may include a summary of key environmental and social risks identified during environmental and social due diligence (ESDD); key elements of an environmental and social action plan (ESAP); or ways in which we plan to support the investee improve environmental and social standards, such as through their environmental and social management system (ESMS); as well as any other priority areas agreed with the investee.
  • Environmental and social risk

    A risk category rating, which indicates the level of environmental and social risk associated with an investment. For an explanation of the categorisations used, see here. We consistently provide an environmental and social risk category for all investments screened from 2023 onwards.

Environmental and social summary

We agreed an ESAP focused on strengthening the fund’s ESDD process on safeguarding and supply chain. The fund will also align their environmental and social policy with our Fossil Fuel Policy.

Environmental and social risk

High

Understanding our approach to environmental and social risk (PDF)

Reporting and Complaints Mechanism

The Reporting and Complaints Mechanism allows anyone outside BII to report alleged breaches of the business integrity or environmental and social provisions of BII’s Policy on Responsible Investing. This includes breaches made by BII, a BII investee, or a portfolio company of a fund in which BII has invested. The Reporting and Complaints Mechanism Rules are available here. Reports and complaints can be submitted by email to reportsandcomplaints@bii.co.uk or by mail. See more details on our Reporting and Complaints Mechanism here.

For any other general enquiries contact us at enquiries@bii.co.uk

  • Key facts
    Last updated

    When the last quarterly update of the website database occurred.
    :
    June 2024
    Project number

    An identifier number shared by investments in the same project.
    :
    D5276
    Status

    The current status of the investment (green flag for active and red flag for exited).
    :
    Active
    Region

    The geographical region where the country is located. We currently invest in Africa, South Asia, South East Asia and the Caribbean. In 2023, BII’s investment mandate was extended allowing it to invest in regional funds linked to Ukraine, with the majority of activity expected to begin post-war. Investments outside these regions were made prior to 2012 under previous investment mandates.
    :
    Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa
    Sector

    We prioritise those sectors that facilitate development and need our capital the most. Our priority sectors contribute towards many of the Sustainable Development Goals. They range from investing in the power infrastructure that will provide people with better access to electricity, to investing in financial institutions that direct capital to the individuals and businesses that need it the most.

    :
    Communications & IT services, Construction & Real estate, Infrastructure

    We provide capital in the following ways: directly – through direct equity, direct debt, guarantees and other non-intermediated financial instruments; and indirectly – principally through investment funds.

    For direct investments and fund investments, this is the date BII committed capital to the investments. This is typically the date on which legal agreements are signed by all parties.

    For the portfolio companies of our fund investments, this is the date (either the month or the quarter) on which the fund committed capital to the portfolio company.

    For direct equity investments, this is the date at which British International Investment exited the investment.

    For debt investments, this is the date at which the final debt repayment was made.

    For funds, this is the date at which the fund was terminated.

    For underlying fund investments, this is the date at which the fund manager exited the investment.

    The total amount committed, per financial instrument, per investment, on the date BII becomes subject to a binding legal obligation to provide funding or assume a contingent liability. This information is provided in US dollars.

    For direct investments, this is the amount that BII has committed to the business or project. For fund investments, this is the amount BII has committed to the fund.

    The currency in which the investment was made.
    Investment type :
    Fund
    Start date :
    June 2022
    Amount :
    $76m
    Currency of investment :
    USD
    Fund Manager:
    African Infrastructure Investment Managers
    Domicile

    The company or investment fund’s place of incorporation.
    :
    South Africa
    Climate finance

    Indicates whether the investment is climate finance qualified or partially climate finance qualified and the type of climate finance (adaptation, mitigation or both). We define climate finance using the multilateral development bank (MDB) and the International Development Finance Club (IDFC) Common Principles climate finance methodology. See Common Principles for Climate Mitigation Finance Tracking and Common Principles for Climate Change Adaptation Finance Tracking. We provide the climate finance qualification and type for commitments from 2020 onwards, which is when we launched our Climate Change Strategy.
    :
    Partially qualified
    Climate finance type:
    Mitigation
    2X Gender Finance

    Indicates whether the investment is ‘2X qualified’ using the 2X Challenge criteria. You can find out more here. It only applies to investments made from 2018 onwards, when the 2X Challenge was first launched.
    :
    Fully qualified

    Download as PDF

    Click here to read our data guidance

Investments made by this fund into companies:

For further information about these companies, visit https://aiimafrica.com/

Investment name Country Region Sector Start date Status
Commercial Cold Holdings (CCH) South Africa Southern Africa Construction & Real estate March 2023 Active
Eastcastle Series B Nigeria West Africa Communications & IT services September 2022 Active
Infraconnect 15 & 18 Kenya East Africa Infrastructure December 2022 Active
N+One Data Centers (MED) Morocco North Africa Communications & IT services September 2023 Active
NOA Investments (Pty) Ltd Mauritius East Africa Infrastructure March 2023 Active
The Logistics Group South Africa Southern Africa Infrastructure June 2022 Active

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