Infrastructure

 

Actis has a long history of investing in emerging market infrastructure and, until 2002, these infrastructure investments covered sectors including transport, water and power.

 

Thereafter, Actis focused principally on the power sector, when Actis built a large, diversified portfolio of power generation assets in emerging markets. Most of these assets were owned by Globeleq, which provided the engineering, development, commercial and operating skills to supplement the fund team's investment expertise. Globeleq managed 34 power investments in Africa, Latin America and emerging Asia with a total generation capacity of over 3,200 megawatts.

 

Actis will continue to focus predominantly on power but its most recent fund, Actis Infrastructure 2, will also invest in transport assets, where it has extensive experience.

 

Across its target geographies, Actis will continue to identify opportunities that are not easily accessible to other investors and where the team considers the risk-adjusted returns to be particularly attractive. In current market conditions, Actis's strategy is to target both operating assets and development-stage opportunities that will offer both yield (post project completion) and the prospect of significant capital gain.

 

Actis expects to invest the majority of infrastructure capital in businesses it controls, enabling the team to play an active part in creating and enhancing the value of the portfolio companies. In some markets, particularly where strong local partners play an important role in mitigating investment risks, Actis will take significant minority stakes as long as it can achieve alignment of interests, including in respect of Actis's ESG standards.

 

Investment highlights

Globeleq
Globeleq has a strong management team experienced in the development and operation of power generation projects in the emerging markets.

 

Umeme
Umeme manages and operates the electricity distribution network in Uganda.

 

Empower
Empower is a new business dedicated to supplying affordable and flexible power in sub-Saharan Africa.

 

South Asia Gateway Terminals
The South Asia Gateway Terminal is an ultra-modern, multi-faceted container handling facility.

 

Trans African Concessions
Trans African Concessions is the Concessionaire of the R3bn project to build, finance, operate, maintain and expand the 503km N4 toll road between Witbank, South Africa and Maputo, Mozambique.