OUR COMMITMENTS AND IMPACT STRATEGY

« STOA builds long-term partnerships in strategic sectors to meet people’s needs for essential infrastructure in emerging markets, thereby promoting sustainable and resilient economies. »

Marie-Laure Mazaud, chief executive officer
AN ADDITIONAL IMPACT FUND

The impact fund,STOA invests with the intention to contribute to a positive and measurable social or environmental impact and to generate a satisfying financial return. Tacking both environmental and social stakes into account is essential to contribute to the stable and sustainable development of the countries we invest in.

OUR ENGAGEMENTS

OUR IMPACT CRITERIA

We have been using an impact framework since 2020 to measure our own impact. This tool enables us to select our projects based on three criteria:

  • Accessibility: will the financed infrastructure provide an available or affordable service?
  • Functionality: will the service be reliable and secure?
  • Cleanness: will it have a low carbon footprint?

For each of these criteria, we evaluate the project in terms of both its potential and the country’s needs. Our objective is to ensure that at least 60% of the projects we finance are high-impact.
Additionally, through regular monitoring of the evolution of each of our projects, our tool enables us to identify their key outcomes. We can then report to our shareholders in a transparent way on our performance in relation with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Our management system is aligned with the Operating Principles for Impact Management of the International Finance Corporation (IFC). We were one of the first funds to adhere to these principles, which set a new market standard for impact investing by bringing more transparency, credibility and discipline to practices.
Our impact framework is aligned with the Operating Principles for Impact Management (OPIM).
These principles set a new market standard, bringing greater transparency, credibility and discipline to impact investing practices. They define what constitutes an impact investment and aim to integrate these considerations into all phases of the investment life cycle.
STOA publishes annually the alignment of its impact management system with the 9 OPIM principles and conducts an independent verification every other year:

  • The 2021 disclosure statement is available here
  • The 2020 third party verification report is available here

OUR ADDITIONALITY FRAMEWORK

STOA is an additional-impact investor. This means that beyond our long-term investment mandate, we provide unique and differentiating added value to the projects we support.

Our additionality comes in three forms:

  • Financial additionality: we are able to provide capital where other players do not.
  • Mobilization of private capital: we help make projects more attractive and promote the mobilization of capital from private players.
  • Extra-financial additionality: we provide support for each project in several ways: improvement of its impact; management of its environmental, social and governance risks; establishment of a more rigorous ethics and compliance policy and/or structuring it during the development phase.

These criteria allow us to determine an additionality score for each project (see below). To date, most of our investments have a high or medium additionality.

Furthermore, STOA seeks to avoid investments in jurisdictions and sectors at risk from the standpoint of international treaties ratified by France, in accordance with the principles of the Caisse des Dépôts Group. Our exclusion policy is the one of the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) Group.
Finally, STOA has a duty to be exemplary on compliance issues. To this end, we have set up a strong and responsible internal governance system based on the highest guidelines and standards.

DOWNLOAD OUR ESG AND IMPACT POLICY

Dernière mise à jour/Last update : 23/08/22