United Capital Plc has announced the launch of a Naira-denominated fund, the United Capital Infrastructure Fund (UCIF), with a N150 billion issuance program, established to provide long-term financing for the delivery of critical infrastructure.
The United Capital Infrastructure fund is anticipated to bridge the infrastructure deficits in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa.
While the sponsor of the fund is United Capital Plc, the fund is being managed by United Capital Asset Management Limited (UCAML).
What this means
According to the disclosure signed by the company’s secretary, Leo Okafor and published on the NGX website, the fund has been registered by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as a close-ended fund, with a N150 bilion issuance program.
The idea behind the fund is to finance bankable infrastructure assets across different and diverse sectors such as power and renewable energy, transportation, agribusiness and industrial infrastructure, healthcare, technology, mass housing, urban and social infrastructure.
In addition, Africa Finance Corporation has been retained by the Fund as the independent Financial Advisor, to provide additional layers of best practice of corporate governance in enhancing the project appraisal and due diligence activities of the Fund Management team.
The Managing Director of United Capital Asset Management Limited has explained that as part of the preparatory activities, numerous infrastructure projects were appraised and the Fund management team is currently at the advanced stage of conducting due diligence on a deal pipeline valued at N54 billion which includes several projects.
Speaking at the launch of United Capital Infrastructure Fund, Mr. Peter Ashade, the Group Chief Executive Officer of United Capital Plc commented that “the journey to launch the Fund has taken almost two years, during which period extensive preparatory studies and appraisals were carried out to establish the business case for the Fund, as well as to define a model and governance framework that would provide investors that have an appetite for long-term financing products (such as pension funds and insurance companies), with sufficient confidence of the attractiveness of UCIF, as an investment opportunity”.
