The African Development Bank and ILX Management B.V. (ILX) inked a partnership agreement today in order to increase investments and encourage institutional investor capital mobilisation for Sustainable Development Goals and climate-focused private sector initiatives in the Bank Group’s regional member nations. The signing event was held at ILX Management’s offices in Amsterdam, the Dutch capital.
The Dutch pension fund asset managers APG Asset Management (on behalf of ABP and bpfBOUW) and Achmea Investment Management (on behalf of Pensioenfonds Vervoer) are ILX’s current investors, and it is anticipated that other Dutch and European pension fund participants in ILX successor funds would follow. By partnering with international Multilateral Development Banks (MDB) and other DFIs, the ILX Fund I offers a scalable $1 billion private credit investment approach that can be implemented across emerging and developing nations.
The cooperation agreement enables the African Development Bank to carry out its vision to mobilise financial resources from institutional investors to close the substantial financing gap necessary to meet the Bank’s High Five priorities: Light up and power Africa; feed Africa; industrialise Africa; integrate Africa; and improve the quality of life for Africans. The Bank and ILX will be able to support non-sovereign businesses in these important priority sectors thanks to this relationship. The SDGs and High 5s are inextricably related.
The agreement also gives investors in the ILX Fund pension funds the chance to gain from the AfDB’s long history of profitable investments in significant economic areas throughout Africa. Every loan investment focuses on SDGs or climate finance and offers competitive risk-adjusted returns in addition to strong environmental, social, and governance (ESG) protections.
The Emerging Market Private Credit Fund ILX Fund I has received a $1,050 million commitment from APG Asset Management and Achmea Investment Management to invest in four important economic sectors: energy access & clean energy, sustainable industry & infrastructure, inclusive financing, and food security. In order to assist projects that are SDG and climate focused in Emerging Markets and Developing Economies, ILX participates in loan participations organised by Multilateral Development Banks and other top DFIs.
ILX received grants from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and KfW, the German Development Bank, on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), during its development phase. They fervently backed ILX’s involvement in generating sizable pension fund cash for the top MDBs and other DFIs in support of their investments in emerging markets related to SDGs and climate finance.
