IFC mulls commitment to Argan Infrastructure Fund(2)

International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private investment arm, is weighing up committing up to €8 million ($11 million) to the Argan Infrastructure Fund.

IFC’s commitment would not be more than 20 percent of the fund’s total commitments, according to IFC’s website.

The private equity fund aims to raise between €150 million and €200 million to make equity and equity-related investments in infrastructure projects, primarily located in North Africa, West Africa. It will also invest opportunistically in other countries in Sub Sahara, the website said.

Last year, Robert Zoellick, the World Bank’s group president urged sovereign funds to invest 1 percent of their holdings in equity in sub-Saharan Africa, calling it a “1 percent solution”.

Following that, the IFC set up the IFC Asset Management Company this May, which will manage a $1 billion private equity fund. The fund will allow national pension funds, sovereign funds and other sovereign investors from IFC’s shareholder countries to co-invest in IFC transactions in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Infra Invest, the Argan Infrastructure Fund’s manager, is a subsidiary of Casablanca-based fund management house Argan Invest, which is in turn owned by investment holding company Finance.com. 

Infra Invest could not be reached for comment at press time.