Lagos, Nigeria, November 3, 2021
Chapel Hill Denham were announced as finalists in the UK’s, Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (“FCDO”) MOBILIST competition engaging financial institutions in a search of the best proposals for mobilising capital for sustainable infrastructure. In working with partners across the finance industry, the FCDO through MOBILIST is developing a platform that acts in public and private markets and represents a long-term commitment by the UK Government to securing new sources of investment at scale, to finance global development for decades ahead.
In his speech at COP26 in Glasgow, the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, bolstered his commitment to “rewire the entire global financial system for Net Zero” by pledging a further £66 million to expand the MOBILIST programme. He also named Chapel Hill Denham Management Limited as one of five finalists for its investment product ‘Africa Infrastructure Equity Fund,’ which aims to deliver clean and reliable infrastructure across the continent.
Affirming Chapel Hill Denham’s commitment to Africa’s sustainable development; Bolaji Balogun, Chief Executive Officer said: “Over the next decade, less than 1% of the capital managed by global institutional asset managers can change the course of Africa’s economic and social history and lift more than a billion people out of poverty. A prosperous Africa can feed the world, resource the world and reverse migration. The foundation for delivering this is in accelerating the rate of institutional investment into low carbon, resilient infrastructure across Africa. We applaud FCDO’s decision to direct this capital via well-governed, financially transparent, listed, investment vehicles and are proud to have been shortlisted by the MOBILIST competition.”
Phil Southwell, Partner, Chapel Hill Denham further added: “Sustainable infrastructure enables broad based and inclusive growth across Africa and helps the continent meet the SDGs. However, to get more investment, not only do we need to get corporates to invest more (they will only do so, knowing that there’s an ability to monetise and divest in the future), but we also need to deliver a diversified, yielding portfolio for institutional investors as they are not looking for one-off, greenfield investments. Our proposal in the MOBILIST process delivers this for corporates and investors.”
About Chapel Hill Denham
Chapel Hill Denham has a simple and powerful model focused on investment management and investment banking. Chapel Hill Denham Advisory is Nigeria and Africa’s leading independent investment bank. Chapel Hill Denham Management is the leading alternative asset manager. Our funds are focused on areas accretive to Africa’s economic development targeting sectors such as Infrastructure, Renewables, Real Estate, Women and Youth Owned SMEs, Digital and Financial Inclusion, Healthcare and Education.
Chapel Hill Denham manages a listed investment trust in African infrastructure, Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund (“NIDF”) which allows institutions to invest in an asset class that they could not otherwise invest in. More than 90 percent of Nigeria’s pension funds as well as the African Development Bank and Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (Nigeria’s Sovereign Wealth Fund) as investors. The fund has delivered a total return of 100 percent over the last 4 years.