Africa investor (“Ai”), an international investment and communications group, today announced the launch of its online infrastructure co-investment portal www.aiassetx.com, following extensive consultations with local and international asset owners and their trustees, who ranked identifying qualifying infrastructure investment partners and investable projects, as the single biggest challenge for domestic and global institutional investors seeking to allocate to African infrastructure as an investable asset class.
AiAssetX is Africa investors’ (Ai) online marketplace, designed to profile project and infrastructure investment opportunities and securely connect accredited domestic and international asset owners and institutional infrastructure investors with infrastructure project developers and infrastructure fund and investment managers working in Africa. Ai AssetX aggregates the capital introduction and capital raising process for sell side participants and harmonizes asset owners strategies, to ensure they can efficiently engage with project developers and fund managers who have the requisite track record and expertise to enable them to deploy capital and discharge their fiduciary responsibilities in a predictable and measurable fashion.
Ai AssetX is a smarter, easier and cheaper way to profile infrastructure investment opportunities and connect project owners and investment managers to institutional investors. It is a practical collaboration platform which leverages the long-term investment horizon of public financial investors, such as sovereign wealth funds and pension funds, to invest in both direct investments and fund and investment manager strategies that meet asset owners’ mandates and investment criteria.
The Ai AssetX Infrastructure Co-Investment web portal, was formally unveiled at the Ai Development Finance – Institutional Investor Roundtable, held in partnership with the African Development Bank and NEPAD, at the World Bank annual Meetings, during the IGD Frontier 100 Forum. The Ai Development Finance – Institutional Investor Roundtable convened global and Africa-focused institutional investors (pension and sovereign funds), DFI heads and African Ministers of Finance, to engage in a dialogue on institutional investment in infrastructure.
Hubert Danso, CEO & Vice Chairman, Africa investor said, Ai AssetX was inspired by the Ai Sovereign Wealth and Pension Fund Leaders Forum, to assist Asset Owners leverage Ai’s franchise, collaborative technology solutions, project origination network and vast access to pools of domestic and global pension and sovereign wealth fund capital seeking African infrastructure investment opportunities.
AiAssetX benefits from the support of Ai Fiduciary Ratings, whose role is to measure trust and fiduciary risk, by probing the inner workings of investment managers and project developers on the platform. This incorporates the investment criteria and manager selection imperatives from the asset owners using the platform, which also form the Ai Ratings Advisory Committee. The rating assesses the quality of governance, management and the systems put in place to measure the capability of the firm to meet its fiduciary obligations. An Ai Rating uniquely empowers asset owners and managers of capital, such as pension and sovereign wealth funds and reinsurance firms, in their dealings with infrastructure funds, investment managers and project developers to ensure they receive the service they and their trustees have a right to expect.
For more information on AiAssetX, contact Tracy Vance: tracy.vance@africainvestor.com or +27 11 783 2431.
