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Cordiant Capital Inc.
Company type	Private
Industry	Financial management, private equity
Founded	1999; 26 years ago in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Headquarters	Montreal, Canada
Number of locations	Montreal, London, Luxembourg, São Paulo
Key people	Jean-François Sauvé (co-CEO); Benn Mikula (co-CEO); James Keirnan (chairman);
Products	Infrastructure private debt and private equity
AUM	US$3.4 billion (2022)
Website	www.cordiantcap.com

Cordiant Capital is a Canadian multinational investment management firm based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1999, the firm has also has offices in London, São Paulo and Luxembourg.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[1] Since 2015, the firm's various investment funds have focused on energy infrastructure, digital infrastructure, and agriculture.^[5]

History

1999–2014

Cordiant Capital was founded as a fund manager in Montreal in 1999.^[6] With an initial investing focus on emerging market debt,^[5] Cordiant's first fund closed in 2001 with US$360 million raised from its sole two investors at the time: Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.^[7] Cordiant was an early signatory to the United Nation's Principles for Responsible Investment.

In 2005, the Government of Canada created its $211 million Canadian Investment Fund for Africa,^[4] with Actis and Cordiant as co-managers.^[7] ln December 2009,^[8] Cordiant was selected to manage the €500 million Infrastructure Crisis Facility-Debt Pool,^[9] part of a $4 billion program launched by the World Bank. Investors in the fund included various European governments and state development agencies.^[10] Among them was the Government of Germany, through the development bank KfW.^[9]

By 2011, Cordiant had invested around US$2 billion of the $2.2 billion it managed,^[3] and had partnered with institutions such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on diverse project types.^[4] In April 2013, Cordiant raised $250 million for its fourth emerging market debt fund.^[7]^[11]

Since 2015

In 2015 and 2016, Cordiant was purchased from majority shareholder Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan by a new consortium of partners,^[12] including Benn Mikula and Jean-François Sauvé, who became co-CEOs^[5] and managing partners.^[12]^[5] James Keirnan was named Cordiant's new chair.^[5]

Upon the change in ownership, Cordiant focused on four sectors: digital infrastructure, agriculture, renewable energy and transport.^[5] The company stated it would focus increasingly on middle-market companies,^[12] both in emerging and developed markets.^[13] Cordiant Capital was one of three Canadian signatories of the Operating Principles for Impact Management investing standard.^[14] By January 2020, Cordiant had brought in Steven Marshall, former president of American Tower, as its chairman of telecommunications, overseeing a new $350 million Cordiant fund (Cordiant IX) focused on telecoms infrastructure.^[2]

Cordiant listed a new fund, Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Ltd., on the London Stock Exchange in February 2021. It was given a £370 million funding cap with plans to invest in telecom infrastructure: data centers, primarily mobile-phone towers and fiber-optic networks.^[5]^[15] The traded fund's investors were described by The Globe & Mail as "pension plans, alternative asset managers and wealthy families from Australia, Canada, Switzerland, the U.S. and the U.K."^[5] The fund's first deal was with the Czech Republic–based digital infrastructure company CRA.^[12]