Despite the challenging investment environment of 2020, SAIL Ventures aims to have invested up to $100 million, through its &Green Fund, into up to five portfolio companies by the end of the year.
The firm's ambition is to challenge "the notion that blended finance and donor capital cannot influence global supply chain actors". It tries to achieve this and combat climate change through innovative financial tools, attractive conditions for clients for transformative projects and high standards for environmental and social risk management.
Investors in the &Green debt fund include the Government of Norway, Unilever and the Global Environment Facility. Dutch advisory firm SAIL Ventures acts as the fund's investment advisor.
&Green is focused on tropical forest jurisdictions with progressive forest protection strategies and targets in place. Its targets sectors are the commodities that are driving deforestation such as palm oil, soy, beef and forestry.
Setting SAIL for sustainable supply chains
Winner of the IMPACT Private debt provider and asset manager (small) awards, investment firm SAIL Ventures is focused on transforming emerging market commodity supply chains. Chief investment officer Johnny Brom and Head of Impact and ESG Michael Schlup explain
It has invested $10 million in Brazilian soy and cattle producer Agropecuária Roncador, $30 million in Indonesian palm oil grower PT Dharma Satya Nusantara and $23.75 million of notes issued by the Tropical Landscape Financing Facility (TLFF) to fund Indonesian natural rubber joint venture PT Royal Lestari Utama (RLU), a deal arranged by BNP Paribas. SAIL underwrote the most junior 15-year tranche in its entirety.
&Green says its most important impact KPIs are the amount of private sector capital catalysed, and the amount of forest conserved through its investments. Across the portfolio, it aims for, and says it is on track to achieve, a 'leverage factor' of 5x and 12,500ha per $1 million invested.
"We are delighted to be recognised as Private debt provider of the year by Environmental Finance for our investments made through the &Green Fund, a long-term debt vehicle investing to decouple tropical agri-commodity production from deforestation," says Johnny Brom, chief investment officer at SAIL. "The award crowns a successful year in which we were able to deploy $60 million globally into high-impact transactions fully consistent with the mandate given by our investors."