Cerba Africa

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     Cerba Lancet Africa (“CLA”, “JV” or the “company”), a network of medical laboratories across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), was founded in the 2000s by Lancet, a top South-African based laboratory diagnostics company. The project sponsor, French based Cerba is one of the 3 leading clinical laboratory groups in Europe with about 4,800 employees and 400 clinical pathologists.  CLA has operations in 11 countries: Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe (excluded from Project), Mozambique and Swaziland, and just acquired a laboratory in Gabon. The company offers pathology services including phlebotomy, sample collection, sample transportation, pre- and post-test counselling, pathologist advisory and interpretative consultation meeting the needs of patients and laboratory users.  IFC is proposing a €20m debt financing package to support the creation of the first true pan-African diagnostics group with a ‘hub and spoke’ model to increase its capacity, efficiency and affordability. The project will involve upgrading and expansion of the laboratories in the current network and support a series of acquisitions across Africa, such as in Gabon, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Ethiopia with the goal of constructing a quality pan-African laboratory diagnostics company (the “project”).