African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), one of Africa’s largest infrastructure-focused private equity fund managers, has made a substantial additional equity and preference share investment totalling approximately $73 million to support the merger of existing portfolio company Starsight Energy with South Africa-based solar firm, SolarAfrica Energy.
The newly combined strength of Starsight Energy and SolarAfrica will make it one of the continent’s most dominant solar players – a genuine pan-African provider of competitive, full-service renewable energy and energy efficiency solutions to the continent’s commercial and industrial (C&I) sectors.
AIIM recently pledged to increase its pipeline of renewable energy investments in South Africa from 2,000MW to 5,000MW in the next three years.
The merger – announced last week – is subject to standard regulatory approvals including anti-trust approvals. Once approved, the merged entity will comprise a portfolio of over 220MW of operated and contracted generation capacity and 40MWh of operational battery storage, with an additional generation pipeline exceeding 1GW, spanning three key geographical hubs – Southern, East and West Africa.
