IFC Seeks To Raise $500 Million To Back Infrastructure Projects In Emerging Markets.
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, has reached agreements to raise US$500 million for an innovative program to mobilize funds from institutional investors for infrastructure projects in emerging markets.
The IFC signed an agreement with Eastspring Investments, the Asian asset management business of Prudential PLC, to raise the capital.
Eastspring is the first Asian investor to participate in the program, known as MCPP Infrastructure.
"This new partnership with Eastspring will help bring reliable power, roads, and other critical infrastructure to areas where they are urgently needed.
IFC will continue to work with governments and investors to mobilize additional resources for infrastructure development in developing countries."
More than 1.2 billion people worldwide have no access to electricity.
More than 660 million people don’t have a clean source of drinking water and one in three people worldwide lack access to sewage infrastructure.
IFC’s MCPP program seeks to raise US$5 billion from global institutional investors to modernize infrastructure in emerging markets by 2021, opening up a new stream of capital flows to improve power, water, transportation, and telecommunications systems in developing countries.
IFC provides a limited first-loss guarantee on the program’s investments to meet the risk-reward profile that institutional investors require, with support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.

Just as with listed equity, institutional investors in private equity are increasingly widening the scope of their analysis to include wider environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, in addition to traditional risk/return analysis.
Many factors are driving the trend towards greater ESG integration.
Meanwhile, investors are increasingly prioritising responsible investment in their evaluation of investment managers.
At a fundamental level, private equity is about the transformative power of investment.
Private equity managers can do this in two broad ways.
Secondly, once invested, an ESG framework can be used to reveal new strategic and growth opportunities.
The global trend towards ESG integration in private equity means such processes will soon become necessary, rather than optional.
This is all the more important given the many uncertainties that businesses and investors face today.
Meanwhile, ageing demographics, climate change and technological disruption all represent serious longer-term challenges.
Those that fail to prioritise ESG considerations are, in contrast, increasingly being held accountable for poor performance.