InVivo Ukraine

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Established in France over a century ago, the Soufflet Group (“Soufflet” or the “Company”), a former IFC client, was a well-diversified and vertically integrated agribusiness group in the wheat and barley value chains. In December 2021, Soufflet was acquired by InVivo Group (“InVivo” or the “Group”). IFC has an existing A loan of Euro 50 million focused on countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asian (ECA) region, including Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Poland, Romania and Ukraine. The proposed investment to InVivo is an increase in the A-Loan by up to Euro 65 million (“the IFC Loan”) to support the Group’s working capital needs in Ukraine only (“the Project”). The proceeds will be used for general working capital purposes that includes buying grains/inputs (when possible) and meeting fixed costs that includes staff costs. The use of proceeds is similar to the existing IFC working capital loan of 2021 (https://disclosures.ifc.org/project-detail/ESRS/45465/soufflet-corp). In Ukraine, the Group’s operates a malting plant and the agro division operations, involved in grain procurement, operates warehouses and silos. InVivo supports farmers by funding their agricultural inputs (e.g., seeds, fertilizers, crop protection products) either directly or through in-kind pre-financing. InVivo’s EHS performance from previous IFC investments, including the 2021 investment (#45464) is considered satisfactory, and aligned with IFC Performance Standards.