FCDO Competition launched to mobile investment in emerging and developing countries

Private sector investors are invited to identify proposals to mobilise investment in developing countries.

From:

Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

The UK Government today (8 February), invites the private sector to participate in a Competition to identify innovative product proposals to mobilise investment in sustainable infrastructure in emerging and developing countries.

The Foreign Commonwealth and Development

Office (FCDO) is launching a public Competition, engaging financial institutions in a competitive search for the best sustainable infrastructure proposals that can list, either on the London Stock Exchange and/or local exchanges.

In working with partners across the finance industry, the FCDO seeks to demonstrate that large scale institutional flows of capital for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and climate financing through listed instruments is possible. The Competition is the first in a series under the Mobilising Institutional Capital Through Listed Product Structures (MOBILIST) programme. MOBILIST seeks to identify listed product structures or platforms for FCDO to invest in and eventually bring to Initial Public Offering (IPO).

The Competition will feature at COP26 and also directly delivers a Government commitment made at the UK-Africa Investment Summit. The FCDO is backing the Competition with public capital; with technical assistance and by working across HMG and our network of diplomatic Missions around the world.

Emerging and developing countries continue to face significant shortfalls in their private (and sovereign or public) sector financing needs to around $2.5 trillion a year. Low and Low Middle-Income countries need $1.4 trillion of this. As part of our efforts to bridge this gap, the UK Government supports the identification, development and listing of new instruments that meet these objectives: i) commercial viability; ii) replicability; iii) scalability; iv) additionality; v) feasibility.

MOBILIST is the entry-point to the FCDO’s ambition for a UK Mobilisation Platform that acts in public and private markets and represents a long-term commitment by the UK Government to securing new sources of investment at scale, to finance global development for decades ahead.

The Competition is being managed by PwC who will host a market briefing event on the 19th February 2021. To sign up for this event, complete the PwC form here.

For further information, email: uk_mobilist_infracompetition@pwc.com

The FCDO’s work on Mobilisation includes programmes with and through the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), Development Finance Institutions (in particular CDC and the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG)). It also includes financial sector programmes such as Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSDA).