Temasek Holdings has joined hands with HSBC Holdings to officially launch Pentagreen Capital, their sustainable infrastructure debt financing company, with a joint commitment of $150 million. The state investor is also said to be leading a $100-million funding round for Hong Kong-based venture capital (VC) firm and gaming software company Animoca Brands.
Temasek, HSBC launch infrastructure debt financing firm
Singapore’s state investor, Temasek Holdings, has joined hands with HSBC Holdings to officially launch Pentagreen Capital, their sustainable infrastructure debt financing company, according to an announcement on Tuesday.
The partnership, which was first announced last September, will see both companies putting in a joint capital investment of $150 million.
Their goal is to accelerate the development of sustainable infrastructure in Asia by making $1 billion worth of loans within the next five years and deploying “blended finance at scale over time”.
While Pentagreen Capital will operate independently from its founding partners, the two companies will be represented on the board through Stuart Lee, HSBC’s head of global banking for South Asia and global head of real assets finance, as well as Connie Chan, Temasek’s managing director for investments and financial services.
Pentagreen’s new board will be chaired by Kaikhushuru Nargolwala, who also serves as the chairman of Singapore Pools and investment firm 65 Equity Partners. He also sits on the board of PSA International.
Joining Nargolwala on Pentagreen’s board is Marat Zapparov, who will be serving as CEO. He brings with him close to two decades of experience, including in areas such as infrastructure, energy and real assets financing.
Zapparov previously headed the International Finance Corporation’s Asia “Upstream” unit and was senior director of infrastructure at financial solutions provider Clifford Capital in Singapore. He has also held roles in the HSBC Resources and Energy project finance group in Hong Kong as well as the KPMG Global Infrastructure group in London.
“Pentagreen is ideally positioned to be an alternative provider of debt capital to accelerate the development of sustainable infrastructure in Asia. We aim to fill the gap between traditional financing options from banks and development financiers and catalyse the flow of capital to innovative projects by bringing flexible debt financing solutions to the table,” said Zapparov.
Both Temasek and HSBC have been committed to promoting sustainability. For instance, the state investor had launched GenZero in June with a view towards accelerating decarbonisation globally.
Temasek said to be leading $100m round in Animoca Brands
Temasek Holdings is joining a $100-million funding round for Hong Kong-based VC firm and gaming software company Animoca Brands, according to a Bloomberg report.
The deal, which Singapore’s state investor is said to be financing through convertible bonds, would add to Animoca’s previously announced $359-million round led by Liberty City Ventures, Sequoia China and Winklevoss Capital. The earlier round had driven Animoca’s value up to $5 billion.
Founded in 2014, Animoca has evolved from a small mobile game publisher to Asia’s biggest blockchain investor by assembling a portfolio of more than 340 finance, gaming and social media companies in less than five years.
The brand is behind titles such as The Sandbox and REVV ecosystem of racing games. It is also an investor in NFT major OpenSea and decentralised autonomous organisation Yield Guild Games.
The company is now looking at building virtual worlds on the blockchain, creating the so-called Web3 in the process.
Animoca will mark Temasek’s latest investment into the blockchain space, following its investment into crypto lender Amber Group’s $200-million round. However, Temasek has previously stated that it does not directly invest in a specific cryptocurrency.