ECOM Global

completed

IFC is considering a corporate investment to provide a $50 million C Loan to Ecom. This would allow the Company to (i) increase the amount of working capital financing it can borrow to expand its operations or sustain volumes during periods of high commodity prices, (ii) provide further capital to cover unexpected financial needs; and (iii) support Ecom’s internal financing needs to further maintain and grow its business (e.g. risk management systems, sustainability initiatives, provision of technical and financial services to farmers). By supporting Ecom through long-term quasi-equity financing, IFC would help the Company continue to further implement its sustainability business plan, improve its corporate and supply chain E&S performance, through increasing traceability of commodities, developing regional/country level data integrating knowledge of child or forced labor and natural/critical habitat to monitor supply chain and focus efforts to promote productivity intensification in areas with identified risks, and adopting agro-commodity voluntary standards in the cocoa and cotton sectors. The Ecom Group’s diverse operations involve trading and processing of agro-commodities including coffee, cotton and cocoa. Trading operations worldwide place ECOM 3rd in coffee, 5th in cotton, and 7th in cocoa, and has long-established relationships with top multinational buyers, such as Mars, Nestle, Starbucks, Sara Lee, Kraft, and Hershey. With regard to physical assets associated with processing, Ecom operates 25 coffee wet mills worldwide, 2 cocoa processing plants in The Netherlands, and Mexico, cotton gins in Mexico and Paraguay, and will operate a cotton gin to be built in Tajikistan. Other traded products, are grains, rape, and sunseed. Ecom operates an oilseed crushing factory in Paraguay. Ecom has a non consolidated investment in hog farms operating under the name of Granjas Carroll in Mexico (GCM), however Ecom does not trade hogs as such. GCM has been awarded the certification of ‘Empresa Socialmente Responable’ (Socially Responsible Enterprise) for four years in a row. One of Ecom’s core strategies is to procure as directly as possible from farmers. Ecom views the sustainability of the farmers who supply to the Company as critical to its own success. Ecom’s goal of buying directly from farmers and adding value to their production—in terms of improved quantity, quality and farmer income—is aligned with the farmer’s and IFC’s developmental interest. In terms of development impact, IFC’s current projects with Ecom reached a total of 121,280 coffee farmers worldwide.