OPIC Committed $2.7 billion to High-Impact Sectors in 2013
May 30, 2014
(OPIC)
WASHINGTON – The Overseas Private Investment Corporation is proud to release for
the first time a detailed picture of its Fiscal Year 2013 commitments in the
impact investing space. OPIC has long been a leader in defining impact
investing, which leverages private capital to invest for positive social and
environmental change.
“OPIC’s extensive impact portfolio defines our mission to support the very best
of projects that seek both social and environmental returns,” said Elizabeth
Littlefield, OPIC’s President and CEO. “We have a long history of transforming
private capital into solutions for common social and environmental challenges
around the world, and today OPIC is the largest impact investor in the U.S.
Government.”
In seeking to develop a more specific definition for what constitutes an impact
investment, OPIC has applied three measures to its own 2013 portfolio:
Development Finance: $3.9 billion - All of OPIC's annual financial
commitments – in 2013 totaling $3.9 billion – aim to have a positive development
impact, by achieving development, social, and financial returns while
safeguarding against damage to the environment.
High-Impact Sectors: $2.7 billion- Last year, more than two-thirds of
OPIC’s total commitments – $2.7 billion – were in high-impact sectors that are
recognized for fostering positive social, environmental and economic
development. These sectors include agriculture, education, access to finance,
housing for the poor, small and medium enterprise finance, healthcare, renewable
energy, water and sanitation.
These OPIC commitments included more than $950 million in SME financing vehicles
and more than $1.2 billion for renewable energy projects. These projects span
multiple regions, including Guatemalan SME lenders that will be the backbone of
development impact for thousands of small entrepreneurs and a medical center in
Malaysia that will serve people of all income levels with quality healthcare
while creating thousands of local jobs.
Impact Investing: $222 million - A further subset of OPIC’s 2013
commitments – $222 million – were categorized as full impact investing. These
investments had an explicit and inherent intent at startup to address
environmental or social issues, as well as a business model with a structure
dedicated to achieving both impact and financial returns.
Among this distinct segment of OPIC’s portfolio is support for a network of
schools throughout rural Kenya that provides a world-class curriculum for $60
per year per student, and a $45 million loan to FINCA, a microfinance lending
institution that operates in developing markets across three continents through
community-based credit and savings opportunities. These projects display clear
objectives of social or environmental return and display impact intent.
“OPIC is fortunate to invest in and work alongside so many great partners who
share our aims,” added Littlefield. “At a time when private capital is one of
the best tools for addressing major developmental challenges, OPIC has helped
grow the impact investing sector by channeling this capital to invest in
sustainable economic development across the planet.”
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