Sanlam and Africa Infrastructure Securities (InfraSec) have launched the Sanlam InfraSec Infrastructure Fund, a US dollar-denominated fund that will invest in infrastructure projects with an emphasis on economic growth, social upliftment and energy.  

Ben Kodisang, CEO of Sanlam Alternatives, said: “We believe there is a huge amount of organic growth waiting to be unlocked over the medium to long term, along with greater synergies in the relatively untapped space of infrastructure investing in Africa”.

The fund will be managed via a joint venture company set up and owned by Sanlam and InfraSec. 

The fund is domiciled in Ireland, benefitting both from Ireland’s various trade and investment agreements with African countries, as well as the ease of enabling inward investment from DFI’s and international commercial investors due to its positioning and high governance standards.  

The fund will be aimed at leading international commercial and DFI institutional investors.

Kholofelo Molewa and Michael Brooks, Fund's co-founders and executive directors, said: “Although the appetite for investing in Africa is growing, we are still coming off a very low base relative to infrastructure demands.” 

“This will make our fund competitive, whilst leveraging Sanlam and InfraSec’s combined investment expertise, best-of-breed partners and on-the-ground knowledge and relationships in Africa,” they said.

InfraSec identifies appropriate investment opportunities and infrastructure projects across a broad spectrum of technologies, with a special focus on economic infrastructure, such as energy utilities, including renewable energy as well as social infrastructure.

Together with Sanlam, their objective is to generate exceptional returns on a risk-adjusted basis by making equity and quasi-equity investments into a well-diversified portfolio of potentially high performing infrastructure equity investments on the African continent.

“We are very positive about this strategic venture with InfraSec. We deliberately sought a partner experienced in African-focused infrastructure who has an established local presence to maximise future business growth,” said Kodisang. 

“Sanlam on the other hand is a respected brand with an equally compelling geographic reach and asset management presence in the region. Together we believe this will enable us access to local infrastructure opportunities,” he said.