Macquarie’s Africa Fund II closes on $500m

The African Infrastructure Investment Fund 2 (AIIF2), a Sub-Saharan Africa-focused infrastructure fund advised by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets together with South Africa’s Old Mutual Investment Group, has reached a final close on $500 million, the advisers announced in a statement.

The fund, which reached a first close of $320 million last March, will target roads, airports, rail, ports, social infrastructure, power and telecommunications. About 24 percent of the fund is already invested in the transport sector, the advisers said.

AIIF2’s limited partners include UK-based development finance institution CDC, which wrote a $30 million equity cheque for the fund earlier this year, as well as other development institutions such as the International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank Group, Development Bank of Southern Africa and Proparco.

“Many international investors have been keen to participate in AIIF2, and we are very pleased that AIIM [the investment adviser] has raised a significantly sized fund despite the difficult fundraising environment. We expect AIIF2 capital to be directed largely at West and East Africa, in addition to the Southern African Development Community countries, where there is an enormous need for infrastructure,” commented Old Mutual Investment Group’s Paul Boynton.

AIIF2 is not the first fund Macquarie and Old Mutual Investment Group are advising on. Since they partnered in 2000 to form African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), the joint venture has advised on three infrastructure-focused equity funds. “Collectively, the firm currently advises $1.1 billion of committed funds in infrastructure equity investments in Africa,” the advisers said.

To find out more about Africa’s infrastructure opportunity, be sure to check out Infrastructure Investor Africa: An Intelligence Report, published in February 2011.