The project is backed by Andalusia, a privately owned company which currently operates 180 beds across Jeddah and Alexandria and provides services to 430,000 patients a year. The Group has adopted the vision:

- To be the leading “total solution” provider of health care organizations in the Middle East;
- To provide the industry with corporate governance best-practice, knowledge management repository, human resources development, leadership incubators, the industry’s quality best-practices, and information technology tools.

The total project cost is estimated at $48 million, which will fund the expansion of operations in Alexandria, the completion of a new hospital in Cairo, and the establishment of a nursing academy in Egypt. The proposed IFC investment is an A loan for IFC’s own account of up to $15 million and an equity investment of up to $10 million.

25.0 million (USD)

Product Line	IFC Investment (million USD)
Risk Management
Guarantee
Loan	15.0
Equity	10.0

* These investment figures are indicative

Andalusia’s existing operations in Alexandria, which will be expanded, are centrally located near the Medical University of Alexandria. The project site in Cairo is yet to be determined but will likely be centrally located as well.

The expansion of Andalusia’s services in Egypt will contribute to:

- expanding access to healthcare Egypt, which is experiencing increasing levels of demand;
- relieve some of the growing burden currently placed on the public health;
- offering increased employment opportunities to local healthcare professionals, and others in a superior healthcare environment;
- providing a benchmark of service quality that will potentially raise the general standards of healthcare elsewhere in each country; and
- expand the supply of qualified nursing professionals in Egypt.

IFC contribution to this project is expected to:

- help stimulate the delivery of high quality healthcare services in Egypt
- support south-south investments amongst MENA countries;
- help establish benchmarks for delivery of private health services in Egypt; and
- help address the shortage of qualified nursing staff in Egypt and across the MENA region.

IFC''s early review of this investment has identified the following environmental, social, health and safety issues:

- site acquisition and characteristics;
- air emissions and their treatment;
- potable water supply and treatment;
- liquid effluent treatment and disposal;
- waste management including medical and bio-hazardous waste;
- worker health and safety including training and housekeeping;
- disinfection, sterilization, hygiene and implementation of good hospital management practices required to prevent infections among patients and employees;
- opportunities for energy conservation and efficiency as well as waste minimization; and
- fire and life safety including emergency response.

In addition, the hospital will be required to develop and implement a corporate-wide, integrated environmental and health and safety management system. Issues such as emergency care for the poor and disadvantaged and the role of the hospital in the community will also be addressed during project appraisal.While all Performance Standards are applicable to this investment, IFC’s environmental and social due diligence indicates that the investment will have impacts that must be managed in a manner consistent with the following Performance Standards (PS):

- PS1: Social and Environmental Assessment and Management Systems;
- PS2: Labor and Working Conditions;
- PS3: Pollution Prevention and Abatement;
- PS4: Community Health, Safety and Security; and
- PS5: Land Acquisition and Involuntary Resettlement.

Based on this early review, it is anticipated that this project will require 30 days disclosure by IFC prior to Board and has been provisionally categorized as B.