STOA, Progress builder

Our story

Created in November of 2017, STOA combines the strengths of its two shareholders: the Caisse des dépôts et consignation, investment expertise and Agence Française de Développement, strong presence. This joint venture reflects the acknowledgement of a shared DNA: managing environmental, digital and societal transitions through general interest and development missions.

Our name, STOA, means “portico” in ancient Greek. A portico is a meeting place that gave shelter from bad weather. A symbol that stands for us, STOA: the stability of our shareholders combined with a strong entrepreneurial mindset.

 

Our mission

We provide support to European and local ambitions for emerging countries’ development. To achieve this, we provide long-term investment to infrastructure and power projects with high added value for the men and women of Africa, Latin-America and South-East Asia,  which seek compliance with high environmental standards.

Drawing on a creative and proactive team, STOA is a trusted and long-term partner for all market players.

€600

million of committed capital

50%

to be invested in Africa

30%

projects with inherent climate benefit

Our values

Responsability and sustainability
we will invest applying high E&S standards and constant respect for people and their environment. Above all, our projects must be sustainable, ethical and stimulate local job creation.
Agility and openness
of our structure which, due to its size, is capable of being highly responsive in providing effective and quick answers.
Trust and transparency
in the relationships between our team and our partners – including governments, companies and others – which we wish to support over time, in our processes, our décisions and their implementation, which enable us to create and implement balanced partnerships.
Boldness and pragmatism
in the analysis of our projects, the search for innovation and the ambition to be a vector, at our modest level, for economic and environmental improvement.

Our investment policy

We use the following criteria to select the projects we invest in:

  • Projects in developing and emerging countries, primarily in Africa (50%), but also in Latin-America and the Asia-Pacific region
  • Greenfield projects expanding or developing new capabilities in 5 key sectors: energy, transport, the environment, telecommunications and social infrastructure
  • Profitable projects requiring long-term investments (15-25 years) in which we hold a minority share, with a ticket size between €10 and €50 million per acquisition
  • Responsible investments that meet strict ESG criteria

Our shareholders

Active in 110 countries via a network of 85 agencies, the French Development Agency advises, finances and supports over 3,600 development projects. Its goal: to help create a safer, fairer and more sustainable world – a shared world.
The Caisse des dépôts et consignations, a public group serving the general interest, invests to support all kinds of transitions: land-use, environmental, energy, digital, demographic and social. Its 120,000 employees work in 56 countries.