UK-based Enosis Capital launched in 2024 to develop debt-for-nature swaps in emerging markets. Legal & General, one of the UK’s largest asset managers, committed up to $1 billion over five years for debt-for-nature deals in these regions. Under the partnership, L&G will get priority access to Enosis’ deals.
“By pairing our structuring expertise and guarantee facility with L&G’s scale, we can accelerate transactions that matter to sovereign issuers and local communities,” said Enosis’ Ramzi Issa, who structured early debt-for-nature swaps for Credit Suisse.
The deal follows a $100 million commitment in November last year from Zoma Lab, the family office of Walmart heirs Ben and Lucy Ana Walton for Enosis’ Debt-for-Nature Private Credit Enhancement Facility. The private capital-funded facility provides guarantees for debt swaps sponsored by the Debt-for-Nature Coalition.
Conservation finance
Debt-for-nature swaps help countries restructure their sovereign debt in exchange for commitments to climate and conservation efforts. Such transactions have generated $1.4 billion in funding for the conservation of ecosystems of more than one million square miles.
In 2024, for example, $1.5 billion of Ecuador’s sovereign bonds were refinanced to secure $460 million for conservation in the Amazon. Gabon refinanced $430 million of its external debt, backed by a US International Development Finance Corp. political risk guarantee, to support a $500 million blue bonds initiative. Other regions to leverage debt-for-nature swaps include the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize and Seychelles.
Enosis partnered with the Connecticut-based insurance giant Axa XL last month, to provide credit insurance for its deals.
