Souff. Ethiopia

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   IFC has been supporting the growth of Groupe Soufflet’s (“Soufflet”) operations since 2009 and this would be IFC’s fifth project with the Group. IFC’s investment entailed loans to support Soufflet’s long-term investment plan of a number of their malting facilities in Eastern Europe. An existing, strategic IFC client, Soufflet is an established mid-size global originator, trader, and processor of grains (primarily wheat and barley). In total, Soufflet has 27 malting plants divided over Brazil, Western and Eastern Europe, Russia and India. As a long-standing IFC client Soufflet has demonstrated good E&S performance. Soufflet Malt Ethiopia plc (“Soufflet Ethiopia” or “the company”) will establish a greenfield malting facility in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with a total capacity of 110k tpa (“the Project”). The project site is located at the south west part of the Bole Lemi II Industrial Zone, covering an area of 10 hectares. The Industrial Zone is about 17 km from the city center, in south east direction. The construction of the Project will commence in the first semester 2019 and will be completed in two phases: 60k tpa of capacity will be operational by the second semester 2020 (“Phase 1”) followed by an add-on increase of 50k tpa in 2021 (“Phase 2”). The malting facility will include barley and malt silos; steeping vessels; steeping tanks; germination boxes; a double deck kilns; chemical and water storage; an office building; wastewater treatment plant; maintenance department and a laboratory. The main equipment will be supplied by a German company.   The IFC investment under consideration include EUR 10 mln of equity each from IFC and GAFSP (IFC participation being capped at 20%).