GCB West Africa

pending

The proposed investment consists of a senior secured A-Loan of up to €45 million and an unfunded risk participation up to €30.25 million under the Global Trade Supplier Finance Program (GTST) to Guan Chong Berhad Cocoa Côte d’Ivoire (“GCBCCI” or “the Company”) and GCB Cocoa Singapore Pte (“the Co-Borrower”). The financing will support the expansion of an existing cocoa processing facility and provide traceable cocoa-related working capital requirements in Côte d’Ivoire (“the Project”). GCBCCI and GCB Singapore are subsidiaries of Guan Chong Berhad (“GCB” or “the Group or the Sponsor”), Asia’s largest and world’s fourth-largest manufacturer of cocoa-derived food ingredients. The Sponsor has a presence in seven countries worldwide and owns cocoa and chocolate processing plants in Malaysia, Germany, Indonesia, United Kingdom, Cote d’Ivoire and the United States. The unfunded risk participation of up to €30.25 million is within a €60.5 million revolving trade finance facility arranged with a bank, which will be partially secured by inventory under a collateral management agreement. The Project entails the purchase and installation of equipment to increase the processing capacity of the existing facility in San Pedro, Cote d’Ivoire, from 60,000 MT to 120,000 MT per year. The plant is located within an established industrial area, and the expansion will be implemented within the existing footprint without the need for additional land. The facility processes cocoa beans into cocoa powder, cake and liquor for export, primarily to the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom, where these semi-finished products are further processed into chocolate and other cocoa-based products. Since 2023, the Company has initiated a program to ensure full alignment with the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which requires verification that cocoa beans originate from areas with no conversion of natural and/or critical habitats after December 31, 2020. IFC financing will support only the procurement and storage of traceable cocoa beans and processed products. GCBCCI does not own cocoa farms, and it will not acquire farms as part of the IFC financing. Cocoa beans are supplied through two channels: (i) from a bush bean cleaning service partner, SITAPA, representing approximately 60% of the supply and (ii) the remaining part through farmer cooperatives across the country. SITAPA operates a leased warehouse and bean facility, approximately 40 km from San Pedro, that perform the initial process of removing debris from cocoa beans received by aggregators (‘pisteurs’) who purchase cocoa beans directly from farmers SITAPA does not operate for the exclusive use of GCBCCI. The beans are then bagged at site and dispatched to GCBCCI for processing. For cooperative-sourced cocoa, fermentation and drying are undertaken at the farm level before the beans are transferred to small warehouses or collection centers operated by the cooperatives. At these sites, the beans are sorted, bagged and prepared for delivery to GCBCCI. The company does not manage transportation activities within the upstream portion of the supply chain.