Schwarz EE V

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IFC is considering lending up to €180 million as part of a 10-year A-loan envelope to finance the €400 million investment program related to the expansion of the Kaufland format (~3,500 m2 small hypermarkets) of food retail business of Schwarz Group (“Schwarz” or the “Group”) in Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova (the “Target Countries”) over the next two years (the “Project”).  At the moment the Group operates 1,254 Kaufland hypermarkets and 10,209 Lidl supermarkets in 27 countries, with 416,297 employees (302,270 full time equivalent employees).  In the Target Countries the Group had 113 and 57 Kaufland stores in Romania and Bulgaria at the end of FY 2016, where it plans to open 12 and 3 new stores respectively. The Group is only entering the market in Moldova, where it plans to open 10 stores over the next three years. These retail operations will be supported by 2 distribution centers in Romania and 1 in Bulgaria. The Moldavian stores will be served by a distribution center in Romania.