SEF CASPI Limited

completed

Caspi Ltd. is located in the town of Atyrau, one of the sites of extensive oil exploration in western Kazakhstan. The Company owns Chagala Hotel, a three-star hotel in Atyrau, and a small guesthouse in settlement Bautino, south of Atyrau and close to the Caspian oilfields, a site of the marine-supply base constructed by Offshore Kazakhstan International Operating Company (OKIOC).The proposed project consists of the expansion and development of the Chagala Hotel and of the guesthouse in Bautino. The hotel and guesthouse offer rooms in $80-$120 range and the target market is oil workers and associated staff involved with the oil exploration and development work in the Caspian. This will be IFC''s first investment in this strategically important area of Kazakhstan, which is expected to be the prime driver of growth for the next twenty years. The expansion of the Chagala Hotel will meet the growing needs of the international oil companies and related support companies that are developing the new Kashagan oilfield in the Caspian Sea, which is estimated to have reserves several times that of the North Sea. Following this discovery, neither the Chagala Hotel nor the Bautino guesthouse can meet demand.IFC has a strong role to play in this project through the provision of long-term funding. Term financing is practically unavailable in Kazakhstan and IFC''s financing will enable the company to expand the Chagala Hotel and Bautino guesthouse to meet the needs of international clients. IFC’s participation in the project is also expected to facilitate the company''s future access to international borrowing. The expansion of the Chagala Hotel and the Bautino guesthouse is a vital component of the business infrastructure in Western Kazakhstan as foreign businessmen require such accommodation to operate. As such, this expansion and development work will contribute to attracting foreign investment into Kazakhstan. The project will provide direct employment to the company''s employees and indirectly to hundreds of workers providing goods and services to the company.