WIOCC SLF Loan

active

The WIOCC Holding Company Ltd (“WHCL”), the parent company of West Indian Ocean Cable Company (“WIOCC” or “the Company”), is a wholesale broadband connectivity provider, linking countries along Africa’s coastline and connecting to Europe and the rest of the world. WHCL is jointly owned by a private equity fund, Africa Capital Alliance, IFC, Management and 10 African telecommunication companies, all leading operators in their respective markets. WHCL plans to continue expanding its existing connectivity business as well as its data center operations in Africa through Open Access Data Center (“OADC”), a WHCL subsidiary; and implement sustainability programs aimed at achieving energy efficiency at OADC. IFC intends to support this growth through a US$20 million loan facility structured as a sustainability linked loan with specific sustainability performance targets relating to energy efficiency and IFC EDGE building certification in the OADC data centers. Construction of one of the data centers, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is ongoing; and three brownfield data centers in Durban and Johannesburg (primarily retrofitting existing buildings) are near completion. Other data centers and energy efficiency projects to be developed with proceeds from this loan are yet to be determined. WIOCC has been an IFC client since 2007, and currently there are three active investments with satisfactory E&S performance: WIOCC III equity in 2022 (https://disclosures.ifc.org/project-detail/ESRS/41580/wiocc-iii); RSE Covid WIOCC corporate loan in 2020 (https://disclosures.ifc.org/project-detail/SII/44202/rse-covid-wiocc); and WIOCC Investment corporate loan in 2016 (https://disclosures.ifc.org/project-detail/SII/38381/wiocc-investment).