The Project is developed by Asonha Energie SA (Asonha or the “Project Company”) incorporated in Gabon. Its shareholders are Meridiam Infrastructure Africa Fund (MIAF), Meridiam Infrastructure Africa Parallel Fund (MIAPF), and the Gabon Power Company (“GPC”), with expected respective shareholdings of 45%, 15% and 40% in Asonha.

MIAF and MIAPF are investment vehicles managed by Meridiam SAS (“Meridiam”), a global investor and asset manager in infrastructure projects with circa USD 8 billion under management and 80 projects under development, under construction or in operation around the world

GPC is an energy portfolio company created and 100% owned by the Gabonese Strategic Investment Fund (“FGIS”), Gabon’s Sovereign Wealth Fund established in 2012 to assist Gabon in developing new industries that would help diversify the economy and generate revenues other than oil related.

 The total Project cost is estimated at c. EUR 175 million financed with c. EUR 131 million in debt and c. EUR 44 million in equity.

The debt tranche is to be funded with a combination of senior and concessional loans from Development Finance Institutions.

The proposed IFC investment is composed of: 1) a senior loan (A Loan for IFC’s own account) of up to EUR 33 million; 2) a senior concessional loan of up to USD 25 million (or EUR equivalent) from the IFC managed Canada-IFC Renewable Energy Program for Africa; and 3) risk management products with a loan equivalent exposure of c. USD 5.5 million.

IFC will mobilize the rest of the debt package under its coordinating and structuring role.

The Project is located on the Mbei River, about 90 km east of Libreville in Gabon.

 The Kinguele Aval project will flood 187 ha of the Monts de Cristal National Park (MCNP - 0.3% of the total area of the Park), as well as 74 ha of the park’s buffer zone, impacting Critical Habitat values. Furthermore, this project will be the third hydroelectric power plant in the Mbé River, downstream from existing Kinguélé 58 MW and Tchimbélé 69 MW power plants, in addition to yet a fourth one, Ngoulmendjim 73MW Hydro, planned to be built downstream from this Project in the Nkomo river, and therefore there are potential cumulative impacts on the biodiversity values, ecosystem services and river hydro-morphology that could be significant. Consequently, as expected environmental and social adverse impact could be diverse and largely irreversible this project has been categorized A according to IFC's Policy on Environmental and Social Sustainability.