Protea Bonanza

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  Union Gold Zambia Ltd (“Union Gold” or “UG” or the “sponsors’’), a repeat client of IFC, through its majority owned subsidiary Protea Hotel Zambia (“PHZ” or the “company”) is the largest hospitality provider in Zambia. PHZ has successfully executed eight Protea greenfield hotel projects across Zambia, with a total of 612 rooms.  The Sponsor also owns a construction company, Velos Enterprise Ltd (Velos), which was the EPC for all PHZ greenfield projects. PHZ has extensive experience in construction and management of hotels. IFC’s previous investment in UG were Protea Hotel Safari Lodge in 1997 (Project # 7779), Protea Hotel Chingola in 2001 (Project # 10529), and Protea Hotel Lusaka or AEF Protea in 2007 (Project # 25605) – publicly disclosed ESRS for this project available at: https://disclosures.ifc.org/#/projectDetail/ESRS/25605.  IFC is considering a debt funding of up to US$9 million for the construction of a 249-room upscale Protea resort hotel with a multi-purpose center in Kasisi area, Chongwe district, Lusaka, Zambia (the “project” or the “hotel”), which will be branded as a “Protea Hotel by Marriott”. The project site is strategically located about 7km from the Lusaka International Airport (https://goo.gl/maps/WvGVwQnB9sA2). The Project is on the 11-hectare portion of the 900-hactare parcel of land acquired by the sponsors in 2006 under a willing buyer-willing seller transaction. Apart from the project, the sponsor has a golf course (http://bonanzagolfcourse.com) occupying 85 hectares of the parcel of land and a housing estate (http://www.bonanzaestate.com/) occupying the remaining.