Ninety One’s latest strategy to spur EM decarbonisation

Emerging markets specialist investment manager and clean energy advocate Ninety One has unveiled details of its latest private capital strategy geared at “catalysing investment in the emerging market energy transition”.

The to-be-launched Emerging Market Transition Debt (EMTD) strategy promises to “maximise real-world impact” in the sustainable energy transition whilst also delivering “commercially attractive risk-adjusted returns” to investors, the firm said.

Developed in collaboration with several global capital providers and advisers, the private capital strategy provides credit to new clean infrastructure and technologies, as well as, it said, to high-emitting companies that are seen to have potential to meaningfully reduce emissions.

Transition finance, or debt, refers to financing activity aimed at decarbonising socio-economically important entities or activities. The firm said its EMTD fund is governed by the principle that “private capital is key to driving emerging markets transition” to clean and sustainable energy.

Portfolio manager of the EMTD fund, Matt Christ, said the strategy, which is set to be in-market early this year, is “proof-positive that investors shouldn’t have to sacrifice return for impact.”

The firm is also “well positioned to lean into the secular growth tailwind created by the urgent need to decarbonise emerging markets,” Christ said.

Nazmeera Moola, chief sustainability officer at Ninety One, said: “A successful global energy transition is not possible without a successful emerging markets transition.

“This is the only way we will collectively achieve net zero.”

She added: “Specifically, we believe there is an opportunity to support and grow the corporate sector, by using debt to finance the climate-oriented evolution of their businesses. This provides competitive returns with substantial climate impact.”

Founded in 1991 in Johannesburg, South Africa, and today boasting 22 offices spanning 15 countries, including Australia, Ninety One promotes itself as an “active advocate for private investment in the emerging market transition”, helping to bring about “lasting and sustainable real-world decarbonisation”.