Exchange-Debt

completed

The Exchange is the development of a greenfield LEED-certified mixed-use development in Accra, the capital city of Ghana (“the Project” or “The Exchange”). The Project is being developed by Actis’s Africa Real Estate Fund 2 (AREF2), a fund controlled by Actis, a private equity firm that invests exclusively in Africa, Asia and Latin America. IFC has an existing investment in Actis via AR2 which focuses on real estate developments in Africa. The Project will be located on a 6.9 ha site sited directly adjacent to Liberation Road, the main arterial road connecting Accra to the airport. The Project will be developed in phases. In total the Project will consist of: i) 2 office buildings with a gross building area of 16,500 m2 (“Office”) ii) a 200-room 4-Star hotel with a conference center to be operated by Rezidor as a Radisson Blu ("the Hotel”); iii) 11.500 m2 of modern retail space (“Retail”) and iv) 100 residential units (“Residential”), with a total built-up area of 120,000m2. Basement parking will also be provided for each of the Project components. The development management activities of the Project will be carried out by Laurus Development Partners (Laurus) which is majority owned by Actis, with the remaining share owned by Laurus’s CEO.  Laurus is a West African real estate development company and has offices in Accra and Lagos, Nigeria; Laurus also managed the construction of another development, One Airport Square, on behalf of Actis. In addition, Profica will be responsible for the construction management of the project.  For The Exchange, Dar Al-Handasah has been appointed the Executive Architect, alongside HOK as the Design Architect, Farrow Laing as the Quantity Surveyor and Source as the Hotel Interior Designer  Phase 1 of the development comprises: (i) the hotel; (ii) the retail component; and (iii) 50 residential units. IFC is proposing a $60.5 million loan to Actis to support development of the Hotel and retail space, and not the residential component. This project was previously considered as an equity investment by IFC and the Environmental and Social Review Summary (ESRS) document and companion Environmental and Social Action Plan were disclosed on 6 May 2013 under project No. 33086. The ESRS for the latter project has since been updated to reflect the change in the nature of IFC’s investment as currently proposed i.e., a loan versus equity. In addition, where additional project related information has become available since the project was originally disclosed, this has been included in this ESRS; the latter relates primarily to work associated with the environmental assessment for the project which is now complete. The project ESRS for project No. 33086 as updated i.e. this ESRS, is now being disclosed under the new project No. for the equity investment i.e., project No. 35396.