South Africa’s largest dedicated infrastructure debt fund, the Futuregrowth Infrastructure and Development Bond Fund, has scooped the title Infrastructure Fund of the Year at the inaugural 2008 Africa Infrastructure Investor Awards announced in Gauteng yesterday.

The R6.1bn fund owned by Cape Town based Futuregrowth Asset Management which won the award against stiff competition, is a socially responsible investment (SRI) vehicle that makes investments that facilitate infrastructural, social, environmental and economic development in southern Africa.

Launched in 1995, the award-winning specialist fund is invested in a range of diverse projects including transport infrastructure (N3 Toll Road and SA Taxi Securitisation), urban renewal projects in central Johannesburg - Jika Properties and the Trust for Urban Housing Finance (TUHF) - and the funding of community buildings such as 12,000-member Grace Bible Church in Soweto, among others.

Futuregrowth chief investment officer Andrew Canter said that the institutional fund offered pension funds stable and sustainable risk-adjusted long-term returns while at the same time addressing the social and economic needs of South African society. The AA- rated fund is suitable for inclusion in a retirement fund’s investment strategy as a core SRI allocation or a portion of a bond allocation in a balanced portfolio.

“This fund is making things happen in South Africa. We would like to thank all our clients for enabling us to create this meaningful fund, which is changing people’s lives at the grassroots, and achieving outperformance against the benchmark (BESSA All Bond Index).”

Futuregrowth’s Infrastructure and Development Bond Fund won against other shortlisted constituents in the Social Infrastructure Deal of the Year category, including Actis Infrastructure Fund, Africa Infrastructure Investment Fund (AIIF), PME Infrastructure, Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) and the Pan African Infras