Sucden CdI

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 The proposed investment is an up to €100m syndicated term loan on a Unsecured Covenant Light basis (1-year maturity, renewable/re-committed annually, for up to 4 years in aggregate) by IFC to SUCDEN Cote d’Ivoire (“SUCDEN-CI” or the “Company”) and its parent company SUCDEN S.A (the “co-Borrower” and, jointly with SUCDEN-CI and other subsidiaries, “SUCDEN” or the “Group”) to finance the procurement and export of cocoa beans from Cote d’Ivoire (CI).Overall, the Group sources around 150,000 tons per annum (tpa) of cocoa beans from CI of which a min 60,000 tpa is through SUCDEN-CI and is sustainable (traceable and the majority is subjected to 3rd party certification and/or similar E&S requirements from SUCDEN-CI’s customers); the remainder is sourced through other exporters. IFC financing will support SUCDEN-CI and Sucden SA, hence it will be financing all  sustainable cocoa beans sourced by them. SUCDEN-CI does not own any farms nor is expected to own any farm as part of this financing. The supply chain of SUCDEN-CI consists of both cooperatives and intermediaries, with the majority (80%) being cooperatives. The beans are sourced from smallholder farmers who are either members of those co-operatives or who sell to the same intermediaries every year. Most cocoa bean harvesting is undertaken from October to March (80 percent of the annual harvest), while the rest of it is obtained in April to September. For the season 2021/2022, 98 percent of the cocoa beans sourced by SUCDEN-CI were traceable to the farm and 55 percent of the beans sourced were certified to the Rainforest Alliance (RA) voluntary sustainability standard (VSS).The company takes ownership of the beans at the gate of either of its two leased warehouses (one located in the port of Abidjan and one in the industrial area of San Pedro) after ensuring that the beans have passed the required quality checks. The beans are then subject to simple primary processing, which includes drying, packing, and fumigation as per phytosanitary requirements, prior to export. The processing is carried out by contracted service providers employed by the owners of the warehouses.   Transport of the beans from the farms and co-ops to the warehouses is organized and managed by the suppliers of the beans, while that from the warehouses to the ports (a very short distance) is organized and managed by SUCDEN-CI.