Webber Wentzel won the African Legal Awards - Environment, Energy & Natural Resources Team of the Year

Webber Wentzel won Environment, Energy & Natural Resources Team of the Year at the African Legal Awards for advising on the establishment of the ARCH ARPF Feeder Partnership.

Webber Wentzel advised on the establishment of the ARCH ARPF Feeder Partnership, a feeder vehicle aggregating capital from numerous South African pension funds intended for investment through the ARCH Africa Renewable Power Fund LP (the Master Partnership) targeting investments in Africa, with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa.

The ARCH ARPF Feeder Partnership implements a fit-for-purpose environmental and social management system to integrate a rigorous ESG lens at each stage of their investment process, from initial screening to exit. It is comprised of policies, procedures, and tools to identify, assess, manage, and report on ESG risks and positive ESG impact associated with the activities of their portfolio companies.

Webber Wentzel acted as lead counsel in respect of the establishment of the Partnership and advised generally with respect to the joint venture arrangement between ARCH and a black fund manager for the purposes of establishing the Partnership as a black managed private equity fund, to gain exposure to a diversified portfolio of investments in Africa. The focus is on Sub-Saharan Africa, renewable energy independent power producer projects, developed or acquired with equity/quasi-equity instruments, through the Master Partnership.

ARCH Africa Renewable Power Fund LP, the USD250 million private equity fund, was announced in 2019.

The fund will provide ordinary equity for the development and construction of approximately 15 greenfield renewable energy projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. ARPF targets projects that meet the rising demand for generating power capacity throughout the continent by harnessing untapped renewable resources and therefore contributes to the transition to a low carbon energy mix. To this end, the fund focuses on mature technologies including wind, solar PV and small to medium hydro, geothermal and biomass.

It is expected to provide an additional 533MW of installed capacity.