ContourGlobal currently owns over 30 power generation plants in 17 countries around the world, totaling approximately 3.5 GW of installed capacity and projects under construction. These include thermal (fueled by natural gas, diesel, fuel oil and coal), wind, solar, and hydro types of power generation. ContourGlobal also owns and operates small captive energy generation facilities on-site for commercial beverage bottling companies worldwide. ContourGlobal is a privately-held company that was founded in 2005 by its Chief Executive Officer Joseph Brandt and Reservoir Capital Group, LLC, a New-York based investment firm with over US$6 billion in assets under management.

The project Company is wholly-owned by a ContourGlobal subsidiary.

ContourGlobal is acquiring the Vorotan Cascade at a purchase price of US$180 million. As part of the acquisition agreement, the Company will invest an additional amount of US$70 million to undertake major electro-mechanical rehabilitation of the three hydropower plants in the Vorotan Cascade. The acquisition and rehabilitation program is being financed with a mix of long-term debt and equity.

IFC’s proposed equity investment in the Company is for up to US$15.6 million.

23.80 million (USD)

Product Line	IFC Investment (million USD)
Risk Management
Guarantee
Loan	16.66
Equity	7.14

* These investment figures are indicative

The Project is located along the Vorotan River in southern Armenia.

The proposed project''s positive development impact includes: (i) transfer of state-owned hydros to a competent global private power company that will undertake a much-needed rehabilitation investment program, which is expected to improve the operational availability and efficiency of the power plants, helping prevent further degradation and reduction in power generation; (ii) the privatization proceeds will provide budgetary support to the Government of Armenia; (iii) positive climate change impacts through efficiency enhancements, often the least cost option for greenhouse gas abatement.

IFC''s additionality in the proposed project includes supporting: (i) the Government of Armenia''s plan to increase private sector participation and mobilize private capital to strengthen the power sector; (ii) support the entry of an existing IFC client to a new and frontier market where IFC already has presence; and (iii) support compliance of environmental and social standards in accordance with the IFC Performance Standards.

The project is to acquire, operate, maintain, and conduct electro-mechanical rehabilitation of, the existing cascade of three hydropower plants with total generating capacity of 404.2MW. Key environmental and social issues of the project are the environmental and social benefits of the company’s rehabilitation program, need to improve existing pollution control areas such as transformers oil spill containment measures or lack of oil/water separator, potential employee retrenchment related to privatization, dam safety review of the existing dams, downstream community water use, aquatic ecological habitat integrity, and health and safety management of the rehabilitation program. The investment activities will be within the existing environmental and social (E&S) footprint and will help improve the availability and efficiency of renewable power generation.



Potential environmental impacts are primarily associated with rehabilitation works, but since they are limited to electro and mechanical components of the existing assets, they are relatively small and limited, and can be minimized through adhering to ContourGlobal’s E&S policies and procedures. Dam safety of the existing plants was reviewed by independent experts (Norplan, Sargent & Lundy, Mead & Hunt), and the overall conclusion was that there are no obvious and immediate safety concerns. The rehabilitation project does not require any additional land acquisition, and therefore, Performance Standard 5 is not applicable. No indigenous peoples, biodiversity or cultural heritage impacts have been identified for the project to date, hence Performance Standards 6, 7 and 8 are not considered applicable. All considered, the project is categorized B because a limited number of specific E&S impacts may result, but they can be avoided or mitigated by adhering to generally recognized performance standards, guidelines or design criteria.

Please refer to the related Environmental and Social Review Summary (ESRS) document for this project.

Please refer to the Environmental and Social Action Plan (ESAP) tab in the related Environmental and Social Review Summary (ESRS) document for this project.