MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Calvert Foundation Buys $5m in Subordinated Notes from Eco.Business Fund in Effort to Mitigate Climate Change in Latin America

The Calvert Social Investment Foundation, a US-based institution supporting the “social and environmental impact sectors,” recently invested USD 5 million in the Eco.Business Fund, a lender to financial institutions in Latin America that seek to mitigate climate change. The financing is in the form of subordinated notes, the first time the Eco.Business Fund has borrowed in this manner.

Calvert’s lead investment officer, Kevin Fanfoni, said, “It is increasingly important that [Calvert] finance efforts to combat climate change, and the Eco.Business Fund provides…the opportunity to efficiently and effectively do so.”

Based in Luxembourg, the Eco.Business Fund invests in the agriculture, forestry, fishery and eco-tourism sectors with the goal of protecting biodiversity and reducing climate change. The fund is managed by Germany’s Finance in Motion, “an alternative asset manager exclusively focused on development finance” with approximately EUR 1.7 billion (USD 2 billion) in assets.

As of December 2016, Calvert’s portfolio balance was USD 319 million.

By Aleks Marceau, Research Associate

Sources and additional information:

Eco.Business Fund press release:

http://www.ecobusiness.fund/?id=48

Eco.Business Fund home page:

http://www.ecobusiness.fund

Calvert Foundation home page:

http://www.calvertfoundation.org

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