The company is a joint venture between four partners with an equal (25% each) stake in the company. These include: - Appnell Holdings – It is the investment arm of MAS Holdings which is a leading manufacturer of intimate wear, leisure wear, and casual wear based in Sri Lanka, with manufacturing facilities located in Sri Lanka, Maldives, India, Mexico, Indonesia and Vietnam. - Phoenix Ventures Limited – It is the investment arm of Phoenix Group, which has a large textile operation that includes apparel, fabric and yarn manufacturing through joint ventures with experienced foreign partners in and outside of Sri Lanka. - Unitex Investment Corporation – It is the investment arm of the Socota Group of Madagascar, which is a family owned business, controlled by the Ismail family. The Socota group has been in operation for the last 70 years and is involved in prawn farming, and textiles in the Indian Ocean. - Brandot International Limited – It is a family owned business controlled by Martin Trust family of USA.

The total project cost is estimated at $10 million. The proposed IFC investment is an A loan of up to $5.0 million for IFC’s own account.

5.0 million (USD)

Product Line	IFC Investment (million USD)
Risk Management
Guarantee
Loan	5.0
Equity

* These investment figures are indicative

The plant is built on a 20,000 m2 site located in Antsirabé, Madagascar, which is 175 km from Antananarivo’s international airport and 530 km away from the main port of Toamasina on the east coast of the country.

This is a Category B project according to IFC''s Procedure for Environmental and Social Review of Projects, because a limited number of specific environmental and/or social impacts may result, which can be avoided or mitigated by adhering to generally recognized performance standards, guidelines or design criteria.

Location of environmental documents in locally affected community
The environmental documents will be available at the Chamber of Commerce in Antsirabe and at the Cotona Textile factory site at: P.K. 169, Route d’ Ambositra Antsirabé, Madagascar Telephone: (261 20) 444 84 22 Fax: (261 20) 444 83 65

The project will support the creation of a globally competitive export industry with substantial development impact which will include: - contributing to poverty alleviation in Madagascar through direct job creation for approximately 1,750 employees; - utilizing supplies of raw materials from other sub-Saharan African countries which will help develop the local supply base and encourage the growth of SMEs in the Antsirabe area; - creating a demonstration effect with regard to attracting foreign investment into Madagascar; - transferring state-of-the-art technology to the nascent Malagasy garment industry; and - generating net positive foreign exchange inflows to Madagascar by promoting an export oriented project. IFC’s role will be to provide long term financing to the project, which is still largely unavailable from the local financial sector in Madagascar. Its involvement in the project will stimulate the development of a sound linkages programs with local SME’s. IFC will also introduce best practices in sustainable development and environmental protection to the project which could be replicated by some of the sponsors for their other projects.