Temasek-linked blended finance fund secures US$510 million in committed capital at first close
It will be deployed to green and sustainable infrastructure opportunities across South-east and South Asia, says MAS
[SINGAPORE] Blended finance fund Green Investments Partnership (GIP) has clinched US$510 million in committed capital for its first close, said the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Monday (Sep 8).
Secured from global and regional private, public and philanthropic institutions, the capital will be deployed to green and sustainable infrastructure opportunities in South-east Asia and South Asia “across a strong pipeline of transactions”, noted MAS.
“GIP will support investments in renewable energy and storage, electric vehicle infrastructure, sustainable transport, water and waste management and other sectors critical to South-east and South Asia’s energy transition,” added Singapore’s central bank.
The group of investors and financiers include investment company Temasek, MAS, International Finance Corporation, Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank, HSBC, British International Investment, Bank of the Philippine Islands, Allied Climate Partners, and the Australian government, represented by Export Finance Australia.
The European Commission supports GIP under its Global Gateway programme, MAS added.
GIP is managed by fund manager Pentagreen Capital, the sustainable infrastructure debt financing platform established by Temasek and HSBC.
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It is under Singapore’s Financing Asia’s Transition Partnership (FAST-P) programme, which targets low-carbon projects and blended finance solutions across South-east Asia.
Launched by MAS in 2023, FAST-P raises public, private and philanthropic capital to finance Asia’s green transition. GIP is the programme’s maiden fund to achieve its first close, MAS noted.
GIP was conceived to address the region’s pressing climate finance gap by using innovative blended and tiered capital structures to crowd in capital at scale, MAS said.
GIP aligns with FAST-P’s two other partnerships – the Industrial Transformation infrastructure debt programme and the Energy Transition Acceleration Finance partnership. The former explores opportunities to provide debt financing to private-sector borrowers seeking to decarbonise their businesses. The latter invests in energy transition projects, including early retirement of coal assets, renewable energy, and grid modernisation and development.
“By de-risking infrastructure investments in South-east and South Asia for international investors and financiers, FAST-P aims to unlock capital for innovative and marginally bankable infrastructure situations that have traditionally struggled to attract financing due to perceived risks, with gaps that are more acute in the project development and construction phases,” MAS explained.
Gillian Tan, assistant managing director (development and international) and chief sustainability officer of MAS, highlighted that GIP’s first close marks an “important milestone” for FAST-P.
“Pentagreen has brought together a diverse group of partners, which are participating across the different commercial and concessional tranches of the capital structure to de-risk and finance marginally bankable green infrastructure projects in the region,” Tan explained.
This group of partners includes governments, multilateral development financial institutions and philanthropies, private investors, banks and other financial institutions, added MAS.
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