African first ESG linked capital call facility for Helios Investment Partners

Client challenge

Helios Investment Partners is one of the largest Africa-focused private investment firms in South Africa. The company was established in 2004 and focuses on creating start-ups and providing expanding companies with growth capital and expertise. Helios leverages its local and global networks to create attractive proprietary investment opportunities by building market leaders in core economic sectors and driving performance through a highly engaged approach to portfolio operations.

As part of Helios’s commitment to building profitable, value-creating and building socially responsible businesses in Africa - they required a banking partner that recognises the importance of ESG in accessing capital and growing economies.

RMB's solution

RMB’s Leveraged Finance and Sustainable Finance & ESG Advisory teams co-arranged an ESG-linked capital call facility for Helios Fund IV. The facility, the first of its kind in Africa, enables Helios to demonstrate its commitment to building a value-creating business on the continent.

The interest rate is pegged to ESG performance targets, set by RMB and Standard Chartered Bank. Individual ESG ratings of the Fund’s portfolio companies will be determined by an independent ratings agency. The structure incentivises Helios to work closely with portfolio companies to improve ESG performance and capabilities.

Client enablement

The transaction will allow Helios to continue its long-standing practice of working closely with its portfolio companies to improve their ESG performance and capabilities on an ongoing basis from a risk management and a value creation perspective.