Snowman was initially promoted by Amalgam group in 1997. Subsequently, three Japanese companies viz. Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsubishi Logistics Corporation and Nichirei Logistics Group acquired a significant stake in Snowman. In November 2006, Gateway Distriparks Ltd. (GDL) acquired a majority stake in Snowman. Today, GDL has the management control and holds a close to a 50% stake in Snowman. The other major shareholders - Mitsubishi Corporation (MC), Mitsubishi Logistics Corporation (MLC) and Nichirei Logistics Group together hold approx 49% of Snowman.

Snowman has drawn up a capital expenditure plan of $20 million for expansion of its storage facilities in various locations in India. The major costs of expansion are civil work, lease costs, refrigeration systems, material handling equipment, electrification, furniture and fixtures etc. Snowman proposes to implement the expansion plan over the medium term. IFC’s proposed contribution to the same will be Rs. 250 million (approx $5 million) by way of equity.

5.38 million (USD)

Product Line	IFC Investment (million USD)
Risk Management
Guarantee
Loan
Equity	5.38

* These investment figures are indicative

Snowman is headquartered in Bangalore, India and its present temperature controlled storage infrastructure is spread across Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Ludhiana, Vizag, Kochi, Pune and Goa. As part of the present project, Snowman has already completed its expansion activities in Ahmedabad and Nagpur and further intends to expand in some of its existing and new locations in India. The present round of financing will be used towards funding the expansion plan.

The project’s expected development contributions are:

- Reduce wastage of fresh food and food products caused by inadequate transportation & storage facilities
- Strengthen the local supply chains and contribute to the development of warehousing and logistics industry in India.
- Supporting the development of cold storage facilities with high environmental, social and health performance standards. This can be expected to have a positive demonstration effect in the industry.
- Creation of new jobs on a Pan India basis arising out of its proposed capacity expansion.

IFC’s expected development contributions are as follows:

- Providing the first round of private institutional capital to support expansion of a small sized private sector provider of essential infrastructure services in the area of Temperature Controlled Logistics
- Improving Environmental & Social practices and systems. IFC will provide advice on an ongoing basis to help the Company make improvements on its environmental, health and safety standards
- Provide Snowman, patient equity needed to fund its growth phase and provide it with the requisite visibility for future fund raising
- Aid a small, private company in the rapidly growing logistics sector to improve performance, attain scale, and efficiency.

This is a category B project according to IFC’s environmental and social review procedure because a limited number of specific social and environmental impacts may result, which can be avoided or mitigated by adhering to generally recognized performance standards, guidelines or design criteria. The following potential environment, health and safety and social aspects of the project were analyzed: environment and social assessment, and management systems; labor and working conditions including management of occupational health, safety for employees, contract workers and drivers; pollution prevention and abatement including management of emissions and discharges, water and wastewater, solid and other wastes, hazardous materials and wastes, remediation of past open pit waste burning; and community health safety and security personnel related aspects.

A summary discussion on the social and environmental aspects of relevance to the Project including the company’s plans to address these impacts has been provided in the Environmental and Social Review Summary (ESRS) prepared by IFC and publicly disclosed at IFC’s website (also The World Bank Infoshop).