The Project Sponsors are Suez Groupe, Itochu Corporation and Marguerite Fund II.

Suez is a global leader in waste and water services and has a history spanning over 160 years. Suez Groupe, one level below Suez, will be the direct investor in the Project and is the holding company for all of Suez’s investments (excl. a 10.85% stake in Acea SpA worth EUR282 million). Suez has designed and built over 1,100 drinking water production units and over 2,100 wastewater treatment plants serving around 100m and 70m people respectively. Suez is listed on Euronext Paris (compartment A) and Euronext Brussels. In FY2017, Suez had revenues of EUR15.9 billion, net income of EUR300 million and total assets of EUR32.4 billion. Suez is rated A3 (negative) by Moody’s.

Itochu Corporation is a leading Japanese trading and investment company established in 1858, headquartered in Tokyo. I-Environment Investments, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Itochu, is the company directly investing the Project and is an investment subsidiary focused on European water and environment industries. Itochu is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Itochu has been involved in a number WtE PPP projects – the majority of them have featured Suez as a co-sponsor highlighting the ability of the parties to work together including in the UK and Australia. In the financial year ending 31 March 2018, Itochu had revenues of US$51.9 billion, net income of US$3.8 billion and total assets of US$81.6 billion. Itochu is rated A3 (stable) / A- (positive) by Moody’s / S&P.

Marguerite Fund II, established following the successful deployment of Marguerite Fund I, is a pan-European independent equity fund which aims to act as a catalyst for greenfield and brownfield infrastructure investments in line with the objectives of the Investment Plan for Europe and the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI). Fund II was launched on November 30, 2017 with capacity to invest EUR700 million in infrastructure-intensive projects across the EU and pre-accession countries over a 10-year fund life. Key investment sectors for Marguerite Fund II are Transport, Energy, Renewables, Energy Efficiency, ICT and Water Infrastructure. Marguerite, through Fund I, has an extensive greenfield track record which includes the Poznan WtE project in Poland in partnership with Suez.

Total project cost is expected to be EUR339 million. The proposed IFC investment is comprised of an A-loan of up to EUR70 million; a concessional senior loan of up to EUR20 million from IFC acting as implementing entity of the Canada-IFC Blended Climate Finance Program, and; mobilization through B-loans and a parallel loan of up to EUR30 million and EUR35 million, respectively.

The WtE facility and new landfill will be located in Vinca alongside the existing landfill, c.15km from Belgrade, Serbia. The Project will process residual municipal waste generated by 13 municipalities of the City of Belgrade and CDW generated in its territory.

The sector governance frameworks are relatively new and evolving. The Project benefits from an IFC advisory service that contributed to building the capacity of the public partners to implement the Project under a novel PPP model, and structuring and de-risking the project. The project also benefits from sponsors’ global experience in waste management and strong positive track record of implementing similar projects.

This is a Category A project according to IFC’s Policy on Environmental and Social Sustainability in consideration of potentially significant and diverse environmental and social risks related to the project construction and operations. Environmental issues which are considered to be significant include legacy contamination at the project site and management of leachate generated from the dumpsite; social issues, expected to be significant, include involuntary resettlement of 17 households living in informal settlement and economic displacement of waste pickers, and stakeholder engagement.

Other E&S issues reviewed as part of IFC’s appraisal include: (i) the company’s capacity and systems to manage E&S aspects during construction and operation in compliance with legal requirements as well as IFC Performance Standards (PSs) and the relevant parts of the applicable World Bank Group (WBG) Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) Guidelines; (ii) managing occupational health and safety (OHS) of employees and contractors; (iii) management and control of air emissions; ; (iv) emergency preparedness and response; (v) community health and safety; and (vi) stakeholder engagement.