Impact investment draws interest
FIJIAN Holdings Ltd (FHL) said a lot of interest is being generated around its new impact investment portfolio targeting joint venture with landowning units.
However, FHL Group CEO Jaoji Koroi said because they were targeting resources, most of which were owned communally in Fiji, the key challenge was how to get them “communally together”.
“That is one of the challenges we face because it is not easy to get a community to agree on something,” Mr Koroi said at a panel discussion at the MSME conference in Suva last Friday.
He said they had recruited a staff to particularly look into this impact investment space.
“We are working with the iTaukei executives in the TLTB, i-Taukei Trust Fund and iTaukei Affairs Board in terms of the front end and in terms of preparing the landowners to be ready for investment,” Mr Koroi said.
“There is a whole process. This is one of the hardest processes for us to ensure that communities are able to connect and understand this process before we go down the investment path — in terms of the preparation of their trustees, the formation of their investment companies before we actually join them in the investment joint venture process that we have to go with.”
Mr Koroi said there was a checklist being prepared for those potential investors.
“It is a lot of interest but there is also a long landowning process involved because we want to ensure they are ready before we go down with the investments.”
So far, two impact investments have been signed – Cbayview which is a commercial property development in Tacirua, and Domaine, a mix-use development in Taveuni.
Mr Koroi said another two had been approved – Cakaudrove Provincial Company Investments in Savusavu and Uluiqoro in Veisari.
He said other opportunities were being explored.
The FHL board had allocated 10 per cent of its portfolio for impact investment to invest alongside landowning units – mainly iTaukei or indigenous Fijian communities.