Asset manager the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) and UK’s development finance institution and impact investor British International Investment (BII) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to accelerate collaboration in investments across Africa. 

The agreement establishes a framework for the PIC and BII to jointly explore and pursue impactful investment opportunities, aligning their mandates and resources to drive sustainable economic growth and development across the continent.

The MoU outlines a commitment to share deal pipelines, facilitating the exchange of promising investment opportunities across various economic sectors such as agriculture, financial services, infrastructure and climate initiatives.

The partnership expects to foster regular dialogue and explore co-investment possibilities, leveraging the expertise of both organisations to maximise impact.

By combining their strengths, the PIC and BII aim to unlock new avenues for capital deployment and contribute to transformative development across Africa.

The organisations have committed to review investment opportunities in debt, equity and funds.

The PIC has an investment mandate that enables it to capitalise on development-focused projects.

BII has been investing in Africa for over 75 years.

The partnership with the PIC forms part of BII’s strategy to work with institutional investors and use its concessionary capital to create ways in which more commercial capital can be deployed to support development in Africa.

The PIC’s strategy of investing in the rest of the African continent is underpinned by investing through partnerships, PIC outgoing CEO Abel Sithole asserts.

“The BII partnership cements this strategy and will enable the use of blended funding models to unlock investments that facilitate infrastructure development, industrialisation and trade on the continent. We are elated by the powerful force of two large impact investors working together for the benefit of Africa,” he explains.

“We consider cooperation and partnerships as an important factor in our ability to deliver on client investment mandates. The signing of this MoU provides the opportunity to expand our investments across Africa.

“Sharing deal pipelines and the potential for co-investment opportunities provides important prospects for cooperation between the PIC as an asset manager and the BII as a global development finance institution, committed to investing in emerging economies,” says PIC CIO Kabelo Rikhotso.

“This partnership with the PIC exemplifies our shared ambition to drive growth and increase impact across the continent. By leveraging our combined expertise and resources, we can unlock new opportunities for transformative investments that support sustainable development, drive economic growth and attract increased commercial capital into key sectors across Africa,” says BII CEO Leslie Maasdorp.