World Bank boosts private capital mobilization to record $112 billion

Business Recorder reported that the World Bank attracted $112 billion in private capital in the year ended June, compared with $69 billion a year earlier. The lender said that figure, more than three times the amount recorded in fiscal 2022, sits alongside $123 billion from its own resources, bringing the combined total to $235 billion.

Ajay Banga, a former Mastercard chief executive, has made private capital a priority because developing countries need large sums for energy transition, schooling, health services and farming while official aid shrinks. The bank is now standardising and packaging loans so that pension funds, insurers and asset managers such as BlackRock can invest, with a goal of lifting private capital above $200 billion in two or three years. Banga credited the result to measures including a single country liaison manager and shorter project approval times.

Banga cited a greenfield lithium project in northwestern Argentina backed by Rio Tinto, where an IFC loan of $400 million drew $775 million from other lenders and total commitments reached $2.5 billion. In Guatemala, the bank pointed to Banco Industrial, whose $100 million loan and bond-funded second loan attracted more than 190 global investors, including PIMCO, with the bond 3.6 times oversubscribed. The bond also raised the lender's international profile.