Umeme Capex

completed

Umeme Ltd. (“Umeme”, “the Company”) is a regulated electricity distribution company in Uganda, supplying over 500,000 customers mainly located in the semi-urban corridor linking Kampala, Entebbe and Jinja. In March 2005, Umeme was awarded a 20 year concession to manage and operate the assets of Uganda Electricity Distribution Company (UEDCL). The award of the concession was part of Uganda’s broader privatization of its power sector, which also involved the unbundling of transmission, distribution and generation, and the awarding of concessions for the operation of its existing generation assets. Uganda’s power sector privatization was fully supported by the World Bank Group, and the Umeme financing structure includes both MIGA insurance and a partial risk guarantee from International Development Agency. Umeme is wholly owned by the UK based Actis Infrastructure 2 Fund.In 2009, IFC committed $25 m in debt financing to support Umeme’s operations. In November 2012, IFC participated in an Initial Public Offering to support Umeme’s rehabilitation and development of its network through additional connections, implementation of a new customer billing system, rolling out a customer call center and work management centers, and expansion of its environmental, health and safety management capacity. IFC now proposes to provide up to $50 m in debt financing to support Umeme’s capital expenditure program over the next six years mainly involving the upgrade and expansion of medium voltage transmission lines and substations and through the introduction of pre-paid meters across its customer base (the “Project”).