The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the central bank and financial regulator of Singapore, announced the first close of the Green Investments Partnership (GIP), raising $510 million in commitments for the blended finance partnership aimed at investing in green and sustainable infrastructure opportunities in Southeast and South Asia.

In addition to MAS, investors and financiers committing to the fund included the Australian Government represented by Export Finance Australia, International Finance Corporation, the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank (FMO), HSBC, Temasek, British International Investment, Bank of the Philippine Islands and Allied Climate Partners. In addition, the European Commission is supporting GIP under its Global Gateway programme.

Blended finance brings together public or philanthropic capital and private funding through a common investment structure, enabling investors to invest in certain types of investments that have high perceived risk profiles, such as new climate mitigation-related technologies.

GIP forms part of Singapore’s Financing Asia’s Transition Partnership (FAST-P), a blended finance initiative launched in 2023 to bring together public, private and philanthropic capital to help finance Asia’s green transition. GIP, and other FAST-P partnerships, were launched to address the region’s pressing climate finance gap through the use of innovative blended and tiered capital structures to crowd in capital at scale.

The new fund will deploy debt financing for climate-related, marginally bankable sustainable infrastructure in Southeast and South Asia. Key areas of investment will include renewable energy and storage, electric vehicle infrastructure, sustainable transport, water and waste management and other energy transition-related sectors.

GIP will be managed by Pentagreen Capital, a debt financing platform focused on accelerating the development of sustainable infrastructure in Asia, launched in 2022 by HSBC and Temasek.

Gillian Tan, Assistant Managing Director and Chief Sustainability Officer of MAS said:

“The first close of the Green Investments Partnership is an important milestone for FAST-P. Pentagreen has brought together a diverse group of partners, which are participating across the different commercial and concessional tranches of the capital structure to de-risk and finance marginally bankable green infrastructure projects in the region. MAS welcomes participation by a broader community of partners in FAST-P to mobilise and scale blended finance for Asia’s transition.”