Shared Interest News

Press contact: Donna Katzin, 646-442-0181, donna@sharedinterest.org

New York, NY. January 27, 2010. The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) announced that it is making a $3 million investment guaranty facility available to Shared Interest, a not-for-profit U.S.-based social investment fund, to promote lending to primarily black-owned small businesses and microenterprises in South Africa. Shared Interest, which guarantees South African bank loans to impoverished entrepreneurs, will use the facility to expand its guaranty activities and attract additional capital from U.S. investors. This is a significant step towards helping Shared Interest meet its goal of increasing its portfolio of guaranties by 450 percent. “This facility will enable Shared Interest both to expand its lending to South African SMEs - an important engine of economic growth in the country — and draw additional capital from other investors: two multiplier effects that will greatly benefit South African small businesses,” said OPIC Acting President Dr. Lawrence Spinelli. “We at OPIC are extremely pleased to partner with Shared Interest, which has had such an instrumental effect in facilitating the provision of capital for South African SMEs.”

OPIC’s $3 million facility may be drawn down over a five-year period to cover potential losses on South African bank loans to poor entrepreneurs to whom they would otherwise be reluctant to lend. Shared Interest will be able to access the facility in the event that the organization exhausts its own guaranty loss reserve fund, which will enable the fund to grow to benefit thousands more South Africans. “OPIC’s facility will bolster the business of transformation,” commented Donna Katzin, Shared Interest’s executive director. “It will enable us to unlock millions more dollars of credit for struggling black-owned enterprises in South Africa.”

About Shared Interest: Shared Interest is a non-profit investment fund established 15 years ago to enable U.S. investors to participate in South Africa’s democratic and equitable reconstruction after apartheid. Shared Interest uses the funds it raises from investors to partially guarantee South African bank loans to entrepreneurs, microfinance institutions, and cooperatives in economically disenfranchised communities. It works with its South African partner, the Thembani International Guarantee Fund, to place, monitor and mitigate the risk of its guaranties – and to broaden the lending practices of South African banks. Since inception, the organization has helped its beneficiaries create more than 400,000 small and microenterprises, build and refurbish more than 100,000 low-cost homes, and obtain more than 1.6 million jobs. Not one of its investors has lost a penny of interest or principal.

About OPIC: OPIC was established as a U.S. government agency in 1971. It helps U.S. businesses invest overseas, fosters economic development in new and emerging markets, complements the private sector in managing risks associated with foreign direct investment, and supports U.S. foreign policy. OPIC’s political risk insurance and financing help U.S. businesses invest in more than 150 emerging markets and developing nations. Over the agency’s 38-year history, OPIC has supported $188 billion worth of investments that have helped developing countries to generate over 830,000 host-country jobs. OPIC projects have also generated $72 billion in U.S. exports and supported more than 273,000 American jobs.