MENA Hygienic Holding Group

completed

With its head office in Amman, Jordan, the MENA Hygienic Holding Group (“Nuqul” or the “Company”) is a leading regional manufacturing group primarily involved in the production of jumbo tissue rolls and their subsequent conversion into paper-based hygienic products such as facial tissues and diapers. It consists of 16 companies with production facilities in 5 countries across the MENA region. These production facilities (plants) are located in Egypt, Jordan, KSA, UAE, and Morocco. The proposed project consists primarily of the establishment of a new paper mill in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), (Paper Mill #5 or “PM5”). PM5 is expected to enter into operation by mid-2017.Total project cost is estimated at approximately US$218 million. The proposed IFC investment is a US$35 million A Loan for IFC’s own account, which will be structured as an 8-year amortizing corporate loan.Nuqul is an existing IFC client (since 1990). The ESRS of the previous investment was published at IFC’s website on 12 March 2010 and can be found at: [ifcext.ifc.org/ifcext/spiwebsite1.nsf/78e3b305216fcdba85257a8b0075079d/ad7b22f029a44d65852576e3005fbbe1?opendocument]. For the current investment, IFC monitors its environmental, social and health and safety (ESHS) performance and founds it to be satisfactory. For some existing gaps (in stack emissions and workplace conditions), Nuqul has provided a corrective action plan in alignment with WBG General EHS guidelines and WBG Guidelines for Pulp and Paper Mills. More detailed information is presented in the paragraphs that follow.