IFC Asset Management Company, a subsidiary of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), has completed fundraising for an infrastructure equity fund on a total of $1.2 billion – beating a $1.0 billion target.
The IFC Global Infrastructure Fund will make equity and “equity related” investments alongside the IFC in a “broad range” of infrastructure sectors in developing countries. Target sectors for investment teams based in Washington DC and Singapore will include power, transport, utilities and telecommunications.
The fund was first mooted in March 2011, with the IFC pledging to invest $200 million. The IFC is an anchor investor in the fund along with GIC, the Singapore sovereign wealth fund. The fund has nine other unnamed sovereign and pension fund investors from Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America.
Explaining the attraction of the fund, a statement said it would leverage “IFC’s investment expertise, distinct transaction pipeline and organizational networks” offering institutional investors “a cost-efficient platform to make direct infrastructure investments in markets where barriers to entry and transaction costs for investors can be a significant deterrent”.
IFC Asset Management was established in 2009 to manage funds with capital from outside the organisation, with former Goldman Sachs investment banker Gavin Wilson as its head.
The unit was responsible for managing the $3 billion IFC Capitalization Fund, which began in the wake of the financial crisis with a $1 billion commitment from IFC and a $2 billion commitment from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. IFC Asset Management also manages the $950 million IFC African, Latin American and Caribbean Fund, which launched in April 2010.
In full-year 2013, the IFC made new infrastructure investment commitments totalling $2.7 billion.