Jeddah: Saudi Arabia-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has launched a USD 2 billion infrastructure fund (IDB Fund II) on the occasion of its 40th anniversary.
The IDB Fund II is the largest private equity infrastructure fund dedicated to the 57 member countries, said a statement issued by the bank.
The IDB Fund II is supported by the Public Pension Agency of Saudi Arabia, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Finance of the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Ministry of Finance of the Sultanate of Brunei Darussalam as founding investors, with aggregate commitments totaling USD 750 million for the first closing.
A final closing with additional investors is targeted for early 2015.
The fund is the successor to the USD 730 million IDB Fund I, also supported by the founding investors, which achieved an IRR of 18 per cent and an investment multiple of 1.7 times across signature projects such as AirAsia in Malaysia, Saudi International Petrochemical Company in Saudi Arabia and AES Oasis Ltd with power assets in Pakistan, Oman and Jordan.
IDB President Ahmad Mohamed Ali said: "Building on the successful track record of IDB Fund I, the IDB and founding investors are nearly tripling the size of the IDB Fund II to USD 2 billion. The fund will mobilise up to USD 24 billion of aggregate financing to support the development of key infrastructure projects in IDB member countries."
