MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Sanad Fund for MSME Launches Equity Sub-Fund II with $23m from BMZ, EU to Invest in Financial Inclusion, Job Creation in Middle East, North Africa

The Sanad Fund for MSME, a Luxembourg-domiciled investor in micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), recently launched its Equity Sub-Fund (ESF) II, to invest in financial intermediaries with the aim of increasing financial inclusion and job creation in the Middle East and North Africa. The sub-fund’s mandate includes agriculture and technology as well as traditional financial services, focusing on markets in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories, Morocco and Tunisia. Through its first close, ESF II raised USD 23 million from the EU and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development, which is also known by its German acronym BMZ. The predecessor of the sub-fund, ESF I, invested USD 30 million into the region over the course of six years. In addition to equity sub-funds, Sanad also has a Debt Sub-Fund. Sanad has total available funding of EUR 338 million (USD 379 million) as of March 2019.

Sanad was founded in 2011 by the German development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW). Its other funders are US-based Calvert Impact Capital, Germany’s GLS Bank; the EU; and development finance institutions of the Austrian, Dutch, German and Swiss governments. Sanad invests in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Territories, Tunisia and Yemen with an emphasis on Egypt and Tunisia. Sanad is advised by Germany’s Finance in Motion, which manages assets valued at EUR 2.1 billion (USD 2.36 billion) as of March 2019.

By Eugene DeCosse, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

Sanad press release
https://www.sanad.lu/Press-Releases—2019-07-04-SANAD-launches-new-equity-impact-fund-in-Middle-East-and-North-Africa——_site.index..html_dir._siteid.67_nav._entryid.590_likecms.html

Sanad fact sheets
https://www.sanad.lu/publications/fact-sheets

Sanad homepage
https://www.sanad.lu

Finance in Motion profile on Sanad
https://www.finance-in-motion.com/funds

Finance in Motion homepage
https://www.finance-in-motion.com/

Finance in Motion quarterly report, March 2019
https://www.finance-in-motion.com/fileadmin/user_upload/06_publications/Q1_2019_Finance_in_Motion_-_At_a_Glance.pdf

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Sanad Fund for MSME Loans $500k in Local Currency to Vitas Egypt for Microfinance
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-sanad-fund-for-msme-loans-500k-in-local-currency-to-vitas-egypt-for-microfinance/

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