Mergence Investment Managers has appointed Kasief Isaacs as portfolio manager responsible for infrastructure equity investments, in a move set to significantly boost the house’s existing specialization in infrastructure and impact investing.

Isaacs’s career spans more than 20 years, with a specific focus on the energy industry.

He joins Mergence from PwC where he was a director in PwC’s Advisory Services business for three and a half years and developed and led PwC’s South African renewable energy practice.

He started his career with PwC in South Africa before moving to the UK where he built up significant project management experience over nearly 10 years, managing projects and leading teams spanning several countries and multiple time-zones and languages.

Isaacs has advised extensively to both local and foreign developers, investors and contractors in the SA renewable energy market and has led the teams responsible for supporting 20 successful bids under South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement programme.

These bids spanned a portfolio of wind and solar energy projects with services ranging from transaction advisory to project management and model audits.

He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1998 and has a BCom Honours degree from the University of the Western Cape.

Mark van Wyk, Head of Impact Investing at Mergence, said: “We are delighted to have someone of Kasief's calibre join our team. He brings a wealth of experience in renewable energy and expands our capacity in this important area of South Africa's energy needs.”

Mergence Investment Managers is a black-owned specialist fund manager founded in 2004 with over R16bn ($1.3bn) under management.

Within its range of impact and SRI funds, Mergence has identified renewable energy as a key impact investment area to support government-driven Energy’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers (REIPP) programme and to sustain South Africa’s long-term energy security.

By April 2014, Mergence had invested R852-million in 10 renewable energy projects approved in Round 1 of the REIPP programme.

These projects have produced 637,401 MW hours of electricity, enough clean energy to power approximately 130,000 average South African households.

Mergence intends to expand its funding to renewable energy projects participating in the small and large scale energy procurement programs.