- Date written
- June, 2021
- Contact for guarantco
- Marjolein van Kampen
- Communications Director
- +44 (0)738 8857097
- marjolein.van-kampen@guarantco.com
- Contact for PIDG
- Cecille Sorhus
- Head of Communications
- +44 (0)7917 302724
- cecille.sorhus@pidg.org
- Share
International rating agencies, Fitch and Moody’s, have affirmed GuarantCo’s ratings of AA- and A1 respectively, both with negative outlook.

Fitch confirmed that the affirmation reflects the maintained financial soundness of GuarantCo’s funders, the company’s exceptionally strong risk-adjusted capitalisation and low risk investment portfolio. As in previous years, Fitch has given GuarantCo, a Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) company, a stand-alone credit rating of A which was uplifted to AA- due to GuarantCo’s strong shareholder support including the governments of the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Australia and Sweden, through the PIDG Trust and the Netherlands, through FMO and the PIDG Trust. Fitch continues to assess GuarantCo’s liquidity and capitalisation as ‘very strong’, with the addition of new funding from Agence Française de Développement (AFD), in the form of a stand-by facility, having positively impacted the net par to capital ratio which Fitch use to assess capitalisation.
In December 2020, AFD provided GuarantCo with a EUR 100 million callable funding facility with a tenor of 15 years and in May 2021 Global Affairs Canada (GAC) committed CAD 40 million (c. USD 31.8 million) through a repayable facility providing further funder diversification whilst strengthening GuarantCo’s liquidity buffers.
Moody’s referred to GuarantCo as an “innovative business with high development impact” in their report. Their assessment of GuarantCo’s capital position has been balanced by continued recognition of strong liquidity buffers, including Moody’s opinion that GuarantCo is “establishing a track record of pro-actively managing its stressed exposures and recovering impaired assets” and high shareholder support which was bolstered by the addition of AFD and GAC.
Emily Bushby, Interim CEO of GuarantCo, said:
“We are proud that both Fitch and Moody’s have re-affirmed our credit ratings. The diversification of our funding base through the investment of Agence Française de Développement to be spent on climate adaptation and mitigation infrastructure projects and the funding by Global Affairs Canada to be invested in projects that support gender advocacy will further strengthen shareholder confidence and help grow GuarantCo’s portfolio. This will enable us to achieve our strategic and development objectives with the associated positive impact to our external stakeholders and people in lower income countries across Africa and Asia who will benefit from the essential infrastructure projects that we finance.”