Soufflet ECA

completed

The Project involves providing a multi-country A-Loan of up to €60 million - including IFC current exposure - to Soufflet’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia operations. The Project will mainly support Soufflet in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, while a small portion of the facility (up to €10 million) will also be used for Soufflet’s operations in Serbia and Romania (together “ECA”). It will support Soufflet’s strategy to increase its presence and grow in ECA. Soufflet will use the proceeds of the IFC Loan to: (i) originate wheat and barley and other cereals; (ii) increase in-kind prefinancing to farmers and procurement of alternative grains and oilseeds; (iii) process grain into malt; and, (iv) support trading operations. The Loan will be committed as a 4-year A-Loan with a revolver feature, to match working capital cycles. In 2009/2010, Soufflet originated almost half a million metric tons (mt) of grain in these five countries, where the Company operates 4 silos. Soufflet also owns and operates 5 malting plants in the region that sold 377,000 mt of malt in 2009/2010. With a stabilized source of funds, Soufflet is expected to increase its origination volumes, which would in turn help the Company scale up its presence in the region, develop its input supply and farmers prefinancing, and diversify its procurement of grain beyond malting barley, which would ensure a better capacity utilization of its silos. This additional financing will also provide a buffer against the volatility of grain prices.