GuarantCo wins three awards for its innovative Senelec transaction at the EMEA Finance Achievement Awards

  • Date d'écriture
  • juin, 2026

GuarantCo, part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), last night received three accolades for its Senelec transaction at the EMEA Finance Achievement Awards. The deal won Best corporate bond in Africa (mid-market); Best sustainability bond (mid-market); and Most innovative bond. The ceremony was held at One Whitehall Place in London.

GuarantCo wins three awards for its innovative Senelec transaction at the EMEA Finance Achievement Awards

The EMEA Finance Achievement Awards recognise the region’s key players in the debt capital markets that are bringing outstanding opportunities to investors. EMEA Finance report that green, sustainable and social directed bonds continue to build share next to conventional issues with borrowers eager to access capital that transforms their businesses.

In the transaction which closed in 2025, GuarantCo provided a USD 50 million payment default guarantee for Senegal’s first-ever sustainability-linked securitisation that was dual labelled as a Green Bond. It was sponsored by the national power utility, Société Nationale d’Electricité du Sénégal (Senelec), with the local bond arranged and managed by BOAD Titrisation.

The proceeds of the USD 213 million transaction will finance nine new renewable energy projects in Senegal, enabling reliable access to energy for 1.8 million end users and avoiding an estimated 853k tCO₂e annually.

The bond structure was innovative in that it was purchased by a Symbiotics-arranged vehicle in Luxembourg, which took the benefit of the GuarantCo guarantee and issued a guaranteed bond, which was fully subscribed to by M&G Investments.

Dave Chalila, Head of Africa Investments at GuarantCo, said:

“The team is honoured to be recognised for this pioneering credit solution we provided to deliver sustainable impact in Senegal. We are proud to have played a central role in the first sustainability-linked securitisation in Senegal and the first double-labelled bond issuance in Africa. The guarantee provided by GuarantCo was essential to the completion of this complex yet highly impactful transaction. By de-risking the senior tranche of the bond issuance, we succeeded in crowding in an international institutional investor and mobilising private capital flows into West African sustainable infrastructure. The demonstration of this model has the potential to develop local capital markets and deliver the necessary market transformation to finance renewable energy at scale.”

NOTES TO EDITORS

About GuarantCo

GuarantCo mobilises private sector local currency investment for infrastructure projects and supports the development of financial markets in lower income countries across Africa and Asia. GuarantCo is part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) and is funded by the governments of the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Australia and Sweden, through the PIDG Trust, the Netherlands, through FMO and the PIDG Trust, France through a stand-by facility and Global Affairs Canada through a repayable facility. GuarantCo is rated AA- by Fitch and A1 by Moody’s in 2014. Since 2005, GuarantCo has enabled USD 7.1 billion of total investment and USD 6.8 billion of private sector investment, giving 44.8 million people access to infrastructure and creating around 248,000 jobs in Africa and Asia. GuarantCo’s activities are managed by GuarantCo Management Company which is part of Cardano Development. www.guarantco.com

About PIDG

The Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) is an innovative infrastructure development and finance organisation which mobilises private investment in sustainable and inclusive infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa and south and south-east Asia. PIDG investments promote socio-economic development within a just transition to net zero emissions, combat poverty and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals. PIDG delivers its ambition in line with its values of pioneering, partnership, safety, inclusivity, and urgency.

 

[PIDG offers technical assistance for upstream, early-stage activities and concessional capital; invests in early-stage project development and project and corporate equity through its project development solution, InfraCo; its debt solution EAAIF (the Emerging Africa & Asia Infrastructure Fund) is one of the first and more successful blended debt funds in low-income markets; and its guarantees solution, GuarantCo, provides credit enhancement and local currency solutions to de-risk projects. PIDG also supports a growing portfolio of local credit enhancement facilities, which unlock domestic institutional capital for infrastructure financing.

 

Since 2002, PIDG has supported 258 infrastructure projects to financial close, which provided an estimated 232 million people with access to new or improved infrastructure. PIDG is funded by the governments of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia and Sweden, and Global Affairs Canada. www.pidg.org