A South Africa focused fund managed by African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) has raised an additional ZAR5.5bn (€315.5m).
AIIM said it has completed the capital increase for IDEAS Managed Fund, the manager’s flagship open-ended SADC region infrastructure fund.
The latest fundraising exceeded an initial ZAR4.5bn target by 20% and lifts the fund’s size to more than ZAR22bn.
The fund received new commitments from 19 key South African institutional and pension fund investors, with two-thirds of the capital being committed by new investors to the fund, the manager said.
The fund has in the past primarily targeted opportunities in the renewable energy space, with a 75% allocation to investments in the sector, AIIM said. IDEAS has invested in a diversified portfolio of more than 40 assets since its inception in 1999.
Vuyo Ntoi, AIIM co-managing director, said: “The strong support from existing and new investors is indicative of investors’ confidence in AIIM and IDEAS’ investment mandate.
”The market has reached an inflexion point with public policy support catalysing healthy deal flow and increasing private sector investor appetite.”
Sean Friend, AIIM’s SADC CIO, said: “The pandemic has reinforced the strength of infrastructure as an attractive long-term asset class, in the face of market volatility. All our portfolio assets remained operational during this period, resulting in strong performance and being able to outperform most other asset classes.
“In addition to delivering compelling risk-adjusted returns, the portfolio supported more than 4,000 direct jobs throughout the pandemic, and we are pleased to have been able to play a part in South Africa’s long-term economic recovery and ongoing development.”
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