Published: July 6, 2015
Meeting of minds
Power developer Joule Africa and equity investor AIIM have joined to move into some of Africa’s underdeveloped markets.
In many respects, international power developer Joule Africa, and infrastructure equity investment manager African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), make for natural bedfellows.
Joule Africa has a strong pipeline of renewable energy projects in Africa, including the 202MW Bumbuna II hydro-electric project in Sierra Leone, and seeks to create infrastructure assets that will generate value long into the future. AIIM, meanwhile, works to invest long-term institutional unlisted equity into initiatives of this kind. Both parties are experienced in closing bankable projects in challenging circumstances.
It therefore came as no surprise when, in May, the two announced a new strategic partnership. Under the terms of the agreed framework, AIIM will have the opportunity to back Joule Africa by providing the equity it needs to invest in its projects under development– not just Bumbuna II, but the Kpep hydroelectric power plant in Cameroon and a 100MW solar photovoltaic project, also located in Cameroon. These will complement its existing energy infrastructure investments, not least the Kpone IPP in Ghana and Azura IPP in Nigeria.
Discussing the tie-up, Romain Py, executive head of transactions at AIIM, and Andrew Cavaghan, CEO of Joule Africa, are keen to explain the strategic advantages.