The new company is being sponsored by The SABIS Group, which has the experience of running 27 schools in 11 countries with over 25,000 students. The SABIS Group is owned by two families, the Saad and Bistany families which are descended from the original founders of the Choueifat school. The families’ sole corporate interests are the Sabis school network including Intered S.A.L. The first school in what is now the SABIS School Network was the International School of Choueifat (ISC), located in the village of Choueifat, a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon. In the mid-seventies, Intered started running schools outside of Lebanon. Currently, Intered S.A.L, based in Beirut, Lebanon manages 17 schools in Africa, the Middle East and Asia while an American affiliate, SABIS USA manages 10 schools in Europe and the USA. Some of these schools were newly established, but others were operating when Intered began to manage them. As such, Intered has experience in all aspects of school establishment, including architectural and functional design, construction management, staff training and recruitment, alignment of curricula, development of transitional curricula, academic monitoring, are financial management, The SABIS curriculum is highly structured and designed to pride themselves on achievement of high academic results.

The total project cost is $25.8 million and IFC participation in an A Loan is of $7.8 million

8.0 million (USD)

Product Line	IFC Investment (million USD)
Risk Management
Guarantee
Loan	8.0
Equity

* These investment figures are indicative

The school will be located on a single 80,000 square meter plot of land in the area of Adma/Kfaryassine.

The project will have a strong development impact in expanding access to high quality private K-12 education in Beirut and demonstrating best management and educational practices throughout the sector. The demand for primary and secondary education in Lebanon has grown steadily since the end of the conflict, however, the public sector has not responded with either sufficient quantity or quality. Although the public sector is improving, the private sector dominates both in terms of standards and coverage, accounting for 75 percent of provision overall, and 50 percent of K-12. Quality varies widely within the private sector, however, and to that end, the project will set an example for other primary and secondary institutions based on its extensive experience internationally and established reputation for high academic and managerial standards. IFC’s Role - Provide long-term funding to a mid-sized education provider: By providing a long-term loan, IFC would provide financial support that is not easily accessible to the sponsors. Although the local banking community considers the sponsors an attractive client and are willing to lend to the project, they are not able to provide money of sufficient maturity to match the longer build up periods associated with a school project. - Positive Signal: IFC’s role in this project will send a signal to foreign investors that it is possible to finance feasible projects in Lebanon despite perceptions of high country risk.

Based on the available information, this is a category B project according to IFC''s environment and social review procedure. Issues to be addressed include fire and life safety provisions for all buildings, water supply and wastewater disposal, solid waste disposal, storage of hazardous materials (if any), provisions for student healthcare, and employee health and safety during construction.
Location of environmental documents in locally affected community
The Environmental documents are located in the INTERED corporate offices: P.O.Box 811;Jounieh, Lebanon.