Castlepines Global Equity, an international equity fund that invests its own and partner equity in major infrastructure assets for secure, long-term yields, will be the leading investor in Tunisia Economic City.

The announcement comes after signing an MOA (Memorandum of Agreement) between Riadh Khalifa Toukabri, President and founder of Tunisia Economic City project and David Grose, CEO of Castlepines Global Equity agree to invest large sums of capital in the project.

Tunisia Economic City has been publically announced during a press conference held in Tunis, in the presence of more than 50 international companies participating in the project from almost 30 countries.

"We believe that the Tunisia Economic City project is well suited to our investment criteria and will benefit from our capacity to invest large sums of patient capital. It is well known that there is a vast amount of cash currently tied up in global pension funds. Despite the economic climate, pension funds are continuing to grow in size and seek more opportunities to receive reliable and steady incomes,” said Grose.
 
The concept of Tunisia Economic City is to build, in phases, a world class, integrated modern city in Enfedha, Tunisia, that will become an international hub connecting East and West, North and South for trade, cultural and educational exchange.

This project will contribute to the formulation of the overall economic and future development map of the Tunisian Republic, and the wider region, with a new vision evolving from the region of new nations and the world affected by them.
 
Castlepines, a consortium of various private companies and trusts, principally operates in mining and resources, power generation and utilities, real estate, and shipping and marine.

Founded in Australia, it now also operates in Continental Europe, the UK, the Americas, Asia, Australasia and Africa.
 
Unlike traditional project finance, characterized by long, expensive capital raising exercises to source equity and debt, Castlepines is a sole source of all the capital required to develop a project.  
 
Castlepines has developed a reputation for evaluating each project carefully and funds a project only when they are satisfied that it provides a clear economic benefit to the country in which the asset is located,  provides developmental opportunities to the local community and that it is also morally and environmentally sustainable.
 
The key to any Castlepines investment is ensuring that the return or coupon on the equity that partner pension funds have contributed is secure, date-certain and sum-certain for the full investment term, and that the payer is ‘investment grade’.

Toukabri said: ”We welcome on board with us Castlepines Global Equity, a leading international investment fund, at a time where we are completing our elections and looking forward to a promising future where we strive to position Tunisia on the international arena.”