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The largest asset manager on the continent is tag-teaming with the oldest development finance institution in the world to deepen development finance in Africa, in a deal that is already beginning to bear fruit.British International Investment (BII) CEO Leslie Maasdorp told Business Times that the institution’s partnership with the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which was entered into last year, sought to channel capital from both institutions into high-return investments in the fast-growing continent.“As it relates to South Africa, we signed about a year ago a partnership with the PIC, the Public Investment Corporation, and that’s a partnership that we’re very excited by because the PIC is the single largest institutional investor on the African continent.”BII’s 2026-2031 strategy aims to deploy £8bn (R176bn) into all of its markets and £5bn into Africa. The BII, formerly known as the Colonial Development Corporation, is fully owned by the British government.“We now have a clear… plan to [expand investment opportunities], and we’re doing this already, where we share our deal pipelines with the PIC. We try to identify opportunities to co-invest. We look for ways to sort of pool our resources, and specifically also outside of South Africa, where we have deep origination capacity.”He said BII has offices in financial centres across Africa, including Cairo, Lagos, Accra and Nairobi, where the institution is able to tap into opportunities that the PIC would otherwise not see.We try to identify opportunities to co-invest. We look for ways to sort of pool our resources, and specifically also outside of South Africa— Leslie Maasdorp“So it’s a very… complementary sort of MoU [memorandum of understanding] that we have in place. They’ve got very deep pockets in terms of capital availability. We have a deep track record and experience on the continent, and there are very strong ways in which we can draw on each other.”An example of an initiative arising from this partnership is the recently announced Enko impact credit fund, in which the PIC and BII are investors.“This fund is focused on providing growth capital for sort of midsize businesses in various sectors, because a lot of the medium-sized companies on the continent, there’s often a financing gap that they experience in getting growth capital from formal financial institutions, banks, et cetera.“But that gives you an example of how we’re going to structure our partnership. Some of [the deals] are going to be through funds, some of them are going to be through equity ... but also debt. So there’s a range of financial instruments that we will deploy as part of the PIC partnership.”The PIC told Business Times that as part of the collaboration with the BII it had invested $30m (R484m) into Enko Capital’s private credit fund. “Enko Capital is an African-focused asset management firm managing debt, private debt, equity and private equity investments across Africa. Enko Capital offers a deep knowledge of the continent combined with best-in-class investment expertise.”The signing of this MoU provides the opportunity to expand PIC investments across Africa in line with its investment mandate, enabling it to capitalise on development-focused projects.“Moreover, sharing deal pipelines with BII and the potential for co-investment opportunities provides important prospects for co-operation between the PIC as an asset manager and the BII as a global development finance institution, committed to investing in emerging economies.”The PIC said that while Africa’s outlook remains resilient despite a more challenging and uncertain global environment, the investment case is becoming increasingly differentiated, with policy credibility, macroeconomic stability and reform momentum driving outcomes across markets.“The opportunity remains compelling, but the environment increasingly favours selectivity over broad exposure, with disciplined country and asset allocation critical to capturing Africa’s long-term growth potential.”There are other partnerships across Africa that BII is entering into with the continent’s institutions. It helped to set up Growth Investment Partners Zambia, a pioneering investment company providing long‑term capital to the country’s SMEs.“It is co-financed by the National Pension Scheme Authority, the country’s largest pension fund, providing an avenue for local savings to be deployed into productive use with long‑term economic benefits,” Maasdorp said.He said the PIC agreement was one example of “mobilisation” in BII’s five-year strategy, and another was the Allianz climate emerging (ACE) markets blended-finance fund. ACE will support Paris Agreement goals with a focus on climate finance across Africa, Latin America and Asia. BII says $150m in catalytic capital has been committed.Business Times
