Aceitera General Deheza II

completed

The Project: AGD, a long-standing Argentine client, has approached IFC to obtain pre-export financing to complete its soybean purchase program for the 2002 harvest. The unsettled economic environment is preventing AGD from raising the required pre-export financing lines to complete its planned purchasing program of 4 million tons of oilseeds in 2002. This is at a time when the oilseeds sector expects a record crop, and soybean crushing margins are at 10 year highs. IFC''s Role: IFC is assisting a long-standing client and one of Argentina''s top five exporters to access pre-export financing during one of Argentina''s worst economic crises. AGD''s direct competitors are international traders who are able to fund their activities on international markets and remain largely isolated from the Argentine crisis. Syndicate banks have indicated that they would only participate if coming through the B Loan umbrella. Development Impact: i) IFC will provide dwindling pre-export financing to a local company in order to ensure it rides out one of the worst economic crisis faced by Argentina; ii) project funds will also ensure that the company is able to purchase cash its beans from farmers thereby providing urgent liquidity to the latter; iii) IFC''s B Loan umbrella is also key to AGD''s commercial banks, which have expressed their support for the company but are not willing to increase their exposure in the current environment; and iv) the project supports one of Argentina''s top export sectors, the oilseed sector, which today accounts for close to 20% ot total Argentine exports.