British International Investment

Meridiam Infrastructure Africa Parallel Fund II SLP (MIAPF II)

Burkina FasoGabonKenyaTanzaniaUgandaAfricaCentral AfricaEast AfricaCommunications & IT servicesInfrastructure

Meridiam is a global investor and asset manager specialising in public and community infrastructure. The firm typically invests in greenfield or new primary projects in the renewable power, transportation, public accommodations, health, education, and environment sectors.

The Meridiam Infrastructure Africa Fund II will make long-term investments in African infrastructure, with 40 per cent of the Fund’s commitments intended for climate finance.

This investment was made when British International Investment was named CDC Group.

Our investment

Description of the investment.

Support a highly experienced infrastructure manager to invest in critical transport (~40%), renewable energy (~40%) and digital/social infrastructure (~20%) to improve economic opportunities (>288k jobs), quality of life (8.5m consumers) and reduce GHG emissions (211k tCO2). 40 per cent of the fund’s commitment will be climate finance. Project development in sub-Saharan Africa can have long development periods and challenging risk-reward profiles, which has discouraged the flow of the private capital into the early development stage, placing a significant constraint on overall project development and underlining the continued need for DFIs to direct capital into the space. Meridiam specialises in early/mid stage development to create projects from the ground up that would not have existed otherwise.

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 services (SDG 7.1, 7.2, 9C)
  • Economic opportunities created through businesses and employment growth (SDG 8.5)
  • Reduced GHG emissions (SDG 13A)

How?

Primary Secondary
  • Economic enabler: Increasing the supply of reliable and affordable transport, energy (>460MW) and digital infrastructure, thereby increasing productivity, leading to economic growth, job creation and improved quality of life.
  • Direct: Adding renewable power generation to avoid greenhouse gas emissions.

Catalysing markets: By generating market-viable returns, Meridiam’s second Africa-focused Fund can help demonstrate commercial returns at the fund level (rather than at the project level). In the long-term, success would be more African infrastructure funds primarily backed by commercial investors.

Who?

Stakeholder Geography Characteristics
Consumers

Pan-Africa: Ethiopia, Gabon, Côte d’Ivoire, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Senegal, Togo.

Urban/peri-urban households
Employees
Planet

How much?

Scale Depth/Duration

Investees are expected to benefit at least 8.5m consumers and support a minimum of 288k forward jobs in the economy.
  • 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.
  • The impact on economic opportunities is expected to be deeper in countries where there are higher poverty and unemployment levels.
  • Renewable energy investees are expected to avoid 211k tCo2e emissions.

Contribution/additionality

Contribution/additionality
  • Financial additionality: Our commitment will help the fund reach target fund size to execute on the manager’s strategy.
  • Value additionality: Strengthening of environmental, social, governance and business integrity systems will be a key component in reducing negative impact risk

Grid score

Grid Score

To help us direct our investments, we previously used a tool called the Development Impact Grid. It scored investments out of four, based on two factors: the difficulty of investing in a country and the propensity of the sector to generate employment. This tool was used for investments until the end of 2021. Since 2022 it has been replaced by the Impact Score.

3.3-3.8

Risk

Unexpected Impact Risk
  • Risk relates to negative impact of indirect emissions from transport assets outweighing reductions created through efficiencies. While recognised, there are currently not many viable clean alternatives for transport sectors. Possible mitigation of ensuring cleaner vehicles/ ships using the transport assets is outside of the control of the investment and must be tolerated.
Execution Risk
  • risk relates to the complexity of the projects, with several assets being in high-risk markets. This is mitigated by Meridiam’s demonstrated ability to conduct early-stage development in difficult markets, but some residual risks are likely to remain.

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

The fund manager has a well-established approach to environmental and social management and we will continue to support and monitor its approach as the portfolio grows.

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.
    :
    D4972
    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
    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, 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 :
    December 2021
    Amount :
    $79.36m
    Currency of investment :
    EUR
    Fund Manager:
    Meridiam SAS
    Domicile

    The company or investment fund’s place of incorporation.
    :
    France
    Climate finance type:
    Mitigation

    Download as PDF

    Click here to read our data guidance

Investments made by this fund into companies:

For further information about these companies, visit http://www.meridiam.com/en

Investment name Country Region Sector Start date Status
Kipeto Energy Limited Kenya East Africa Infrastructure June 2014 Exited
Kipeto Energy Limited Kenya East Africa Infrastructure December 2023 Active
Ouagadougou Donsin Airport Burkina Faso West Africa Infrastructure March 2022 Active
Raxio Group BV Uganda East Africa Communications & IT services March 2022 Active
Rift Valley Energy Tanzania Tanzania East Africa Infrastructure June 2023 Active
SETRAG Gabon Central Africa Infrastructure March 2022 Active
Société Autoroutière du Gabon Gabon Central Africa Infrastructure March 2022 Active

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