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The Abraaj Group, a leading investor in global growth markets, has launched a dedicated project development arm to expand its investment efforts in the energy infrastructure sector. The new arm is known as Themis Energy. According to a statement by Abraaj on Wednesday, Themis will leverage the Group's expertise and existing infrastructure team to develop and manage projects from concept stage to operations.

Themis – launched in 2013 by Marc Mandaba, a former private infrastructure investment officer at the African Development Bank, along with other professionals – was acquired by Abraaj to form its energy development arm. Projects under development by Themis in the energy sector are in excess of 1,300 MW. The company consists of a team of highly experienced infrastructure project developers who will enable Abraaj to benefit from deeper execution capabilities in the energy infrastructure sector.

Marc Mandaba, has been assigned as Managing Director of Themis, while Tas Anvaripour has been appointed as a Partner of Themis. Ms. Anvaripour is a former CEO of Africa 50 and Chairperson of Themis. They will be joined by a team of twelve experienced project finance and development professionals.

"Abraaj's ambition is to effectively manage capital across a number of energy sub-sectors and through all stages of the energy asset life cycle, from early developments through greenfield to operations,” said Sev Vettivetpillai, Partner and Global Head of Abraaj's Thematic Fund Business. “We believe that we can successfully achieve this objective by expanding our scope of activities to include a dedicated focus on project development. We welcome Tas Anvaripour, Marc Mandaba and our new colleagues to Abraaj and are confident that their deep experience of the sector and industry will bring long-term value to all stakeholders."

Abraaj, a leading private equity investor in the growth markets of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, said the group aims to address the huge power deficit in global growth markets where a lack of well-structured quality and bankable projects are inhibiting economic development. By establishing Themis as its development arm, Abraaj said it will be able to support energy infrastructure projects and unlock a supply of bankable quality energy assets developed on a proprietary basis.

Ms. Anvaripour said, "Successful project development is a critical element to addressing the significant shortfall of energy supply in growth markets. The combination of Themis' development experience and Abraaj's investment track record, global networks and local footprint, provides a unique ability to develop and invest in high quality energy assets in growth markets."

The Abraaj Group has invested around $1 billion in ten projects in the energy value chain across several growth markets. In October last year, Abraaj announced a partnership with the Aditya Birla Group to build a gigawatt scale renewable energy platform focused on developing solar power plants in India.