Singapore’s Temasek and HSBC’s newly created sustainable infrastructure debt financing business in Asia has appointed Marat Zapparov as its CEO.
Zapparov, who has over 15 years of experience in infrastructure, energy and real assets financing, will lead Pentagreen Capital, a company set up by HSBC and Temasek in September last year to target clean transport, renewable energy and energy storage, and water and waste management investment opportunities.
Zapparov previously worked with the International Finance Corporation, Clifford Capital and HSBC.
Pentagreen has also formed its board of directors, chaired by Kai Nargolwala, who is also the board chairman of Singapore Pools (Private) Limited and 65 Equity Partners. He will be joined on the board by Zapparov; Stuart Lea, head of global banking, South Asia and global head of real assets finance at HSBC; Kelvin Tan, head of sustainable finance and investments, ASEAN at HSBC; and Connie Chan, managing director, investment, financial services at Temasek.
“I am excited to lead a company formed by two world-class institutions that are committed to the goals of the Paris Agreement and to developing the infrastructure ecosystem in Asia,” Zapparov said.
Zapparov said Pentagreen is ideally positioned to be an alternative provider of debt capital to accelerate the development of sustainable infrastructure in Asia.
He said: “We aim to fill the gap between traditional financing options from banks and development financiers and catalyse the flow of capital to innovative projects by bringing flexible debt financing solutions to the table.”
Lea said: “In Asia, many infrastructure projects face varying degrees of barriers to bankability. Pentagreen’s goal is to help remove those barriers and unlock other sources of capital. Market development for infrastructure financing requires long-term commitment and patient capital, which HSBC is proud to provide alongside our partners at Temasek.”
Chan said: “As a long-term investor, we are committed to catalysing sustainable solutions that will contribute to the transition to net zero.
“We believe that we are in a critical decade to reverse the effects of climate change and partnerships such as this demonstrate Temasek’s unwavering commitment to playing our part for a more sustainable world where every generation can prosper.”
As previously reported, HSBC and Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek created the debt platform to finance sustainable infrastructure projects.
The firms will invest up to $150m (€145.3m) in total to fund loans, working alongside the platform’s strategic partners in the initial phase of the platform which will focus on Southeast Asia. The plan is to build a pipeline of projects to scale, with the platform dispensing over $1bn of loans within five years.
The Asian Development Bank and Clifford Capital Holdings will support the platform as strategic partners.
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