Our mission and objectives
- British International Investment is the UK’s development finance institution, owned by the UK Government. We invest with the aim of solving the biggest global development challenges by investing patient, flexible capital to support private sector growth and innovation.
- We have over 70 years of experience successfully supporting the sustainable, long-term growth of businesses in Africa and Asia, and have recently expanded to invest in the Indo-Pacific and Caribbean.
- We invest to achieve impact and a financial return which is then reinvested for more impact. Over the past five years, we have committed almost £7 billion of new investments, with our net assets growing in value to approximately £7.5 billion. We are now invested in 1,200 businesses which directly employ over 900,000 workers and support many more. Over the next five years, we plan to grow further, and aim to commit around £9 billion of new investments over the period.
- Our new five-year strategy responds to the opportunities and challenges facing developing and emerging economies. To ensure our capital is used in the best way possible to meet these opportunities and challenges, it sets out three clear strategic objectives – to invest in productive, sustainable and inclusive development. These objectives mean an increased focus on climate finance, including investing in green infrastructure; on financing digital transformation; and on driving inclusive outcomes, including through gender and diversity finance.
- As part of our new strategy, we have changed our name to British International Investment (from 4 April 2022), to more accurately reflect our central role in the UK Government’s international financing offer.
- In the last few years, we have expanded our presence in Africa and Asia by opening new offices in Bangladesh, Egypt, Kenya, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan and Ghana; with additional locations opening soon.
- We take an entrepreneurial approach to investment. We think innovatively about ways to deploy our capital, attract, and mobilise other investors, and drive transformational impact.
- Deliver impact. We are a growing team of over 500 and place immense value on diversity within our organisation.
- Read more about us and the new strategy at bii.co.uk
Team and role overview
Climate change is one of BII’s key priorities, as articulated in our 2022-2026 corporate strategy and Climate Change Strategy. BII has also committed to implementing the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). Together, these set out an ambitious agenda for contributing towards the objectives of the Paris Agreement. BII is also playing a leading role in the recently launched South Africa Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP).
The Climate Change team sits within BII’s Impact Group and works across all the Business Groups to support deal teams with identifying and assessing climate finance related investments. It is responsible for defining BII’s climate-related investment strategy and objectives, as well as implementing this strategy at the individual transaction level and across BII’s portfolio.
Purpose
The Climate Change team is hiring a Manager to work from the South Africa office, working with relevant deal teams on climate financed investments in Africa, with a particular focus on driving innovative financing and investment solutions for decarbonisation of the South Africa energy sector and for increasing climate adaptation and resiliency solutions. The role will lead engagement with domestic and international partners on the mobilisation of private capital for accelerating South Africa’s transition from coal to zero emissions energy in line with the governments 2050 net zero strategy and NDC under the Paris Agreement.
The role will require collaborating with several teams across the firm, particularly the Project Finance, Equity and Energy Access and Efficiency teams in the infrastructure and climate (I&C) group, to deliver our contribution towards accelerating the clean energy transition within the RSA JETP.
BII’s title structure is Associate, Executive, Manager, Director, and Managing Director. This role will report to Amal-Lee Amin, Managing Director and Head of Climate Change.
Responsibilities
The Climate Change Manager will:
- Work with Infrastructure and Climate group (I&C) and Africa Coverage teams to support development and execution of investment strategies and pipeline development for climate finance opportunities; support relevant market assessments and the deployment of innovative use of financial products (including use of concessional funding for accelerating commercialisation of key technologies and/or risk-sharing to mobilise private investors);
- Lead for the climate team on engaging RSA stakeholders on the JETP, working closely with I&C Team Heads around opportunities for scaling climate finance to accelerate the transition from coal to zero emissions energy, with a focus on renewable energy, green hydrogen, utility scale storage and resource efficiency, including for climate resilient water investments;
- Work with and support the Financial Services Group (FSG) and the SMART (Services, Manufacturing, Agriculture, Real Estate and Technology) business group on identifying and developing pipeline, and engagement within the portfolio for increasing decarbonisation and A&R solutions, including through carbon markets and/or dedicated transition finance;
- Engage with internal and external collaborators to represent BII on just transition finance and support broader BII coordination around new JETPs (Indonesia, India, Vietnam and Senegal) to ensure sharing of lessons and good practise from RSA reinforces future climate finance investment strategies and partnerships, including for transition finance.
The candidate
Background, skills, aptitude
Essential skills
Successful candidates will:
- Be experienced in climate and sustainability issues across the corporate, finance and investor sectors within an African context, particularly as relates to the energy transition to zero emissions;
- Have strong quantitative and qualitative analytical expertise and demonstrate ability to apply this to strategic investment decisions and innovative climate financed solutions;
- Demonstrate understanding of the challenges and opportunities for climate financed transactions across relevant sectors, particularly the energy and manufacturing sectors;
- Demonstrate strong understanding of the role of the private sector in delivering net zero emissions development, the importance of a just transition for workers and communities;
- Be familiar with the RSA JETP and emerging financing opportunities and challenges in the energy and manufacturing sectors, and ideally have an existing network within South Africa;
- Be familiar with climate finance methodologies for tracking and reporting on climate finance and emerging approaches towards Paris Alignment;
- Possess strong attention to detail and ability to communicate complex issues in both spoken and written form.
Desirable skills
- Be familiar with the countries and sectors where BII operates;
- Be familiar with interactions between capital deployment and efforts to maximise development impact;
- Understand the investment cycle from origination to exit.
- Candidates should be strongly motivated by BII’s development mission and ideally demonstrate some commitment to development or social goals through previous executive or non-executive activity.
Our cultural values
We look for team members who aspire, as we do, to work at our best and to be:
- Impact-led, commercially rigorous
- Tenacious in the face of challenges
- Collaborative and caring
British International Investment is committed to diversity and inclusion and welcomes all applicants regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation or educational background.
Please provide a cover letter with your application
Salary: Competitive
Job Type: Permanent