MOODY’S AFFIRMS EMERGING AFRICA INFRASTRUCTURE FUND’S A2 CREDIT RATING
London—25 September 2024: The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF), a Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) company, today announced that Moody’s has reaffirmed its long-term foreign-currency issuer rating at A2, with a stable outlook. EAIF is one of Africa’s most experienced lenders and one of the first blended finance debt funds meeting the needs of African infrastructure.
The International Rating Agency Moody’s confirmed EAIF’s strong capital position, highly rated shareholder base, diversified portfolio and proven ability to raise funding from a group of prestigious commercial and institutional investors.
Co-head of Emerging Market Alternative Credit at Ninety One, the fund manager for the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF), Martijn Proos, noted: “We are delighted that EAIF’s consistent track record of performance – despite a challenging macroeconomic operating environment – has been reflected in our retention of the A2 rating. We already provide long-term, patient capital to transformative infrastructure projects in 20 African countries, and we are advancing plans to enter selected emerging and frontier markets in South and Southeast Asia.”
EAIF’s expansion to Asian markets reflects the PIDG group’s geographic focus across Africa and Asia. This enables the Fund to achieve further portfolio diversification and bring the team’s project finance, asset management, and de-risking expertise to new geographies to deliver impact, commercially sound returns, and economic opportunities.
In 2023, EAIF successfully raised $294 million of additional debt facilities, in one of the largest capital raises in recent years, led by a blended finance debt fund advancing infrastructure development across Africa. The funding bolsters EAIF’s plan to invest over US$800 million in strategic infrastructure and economic growth in developing economies over the next few years.
In 2023, EAIF committed over $274 million with 9 new transactions, spanning approximately 10 African countries and 3 critical sectors: Digital and Cloud Technologies, Transport, and Power/Energy. Recent highlights include:
- $50 million commitment to launch Africa’s first fully electric public bus network in Senegal’s capital, Dakar.
- $33 million sustainability-linked debt facility to Raxio Group, a leading pan-African data centre developer and operator.
- $30 million debt facility to Eastcastle Infrastructure, a platform company that owns, operates, and develops shared telecom tower infrastructure in countries across Africa.
- €35 million senior loan facility to develop a 46MW biomass power plant in Côte d’Ivoire, the largest facility of its kind in West Africa.
- €11.5m senior secured loan to develop the first project-financed solar PV plant and battery energy storage system (BESS) in West Africa, located in Bokhol, northern Senegal.
- €46 million for the extension and upgrade of the A1 motorway, the first toll motorway in Western Africa built under a public-private partnership (PPP) scheme. The project aims to boost economic productivity, progress the flow of passengers and goods, and better connect strategic economic hubs within the Dakar region.
- $48 million to launch West Africa’s first-ever social asset-backed security, modernise the power sector and contribute towards building universal access to electricity in Côte d’Ivoire.