The project is sponsored by the second generation of the Monge family, who fully own and manage the company: Gastón Monge Chevez, Carlos Federico Monge Chevez, José Alfredo Monge Chevez and Maria José Monge Chevez (collectively referred to as the “sponsors”). The sponsors indirectly own Grupo Monge through two holding companies, Caribbean International Electronics S.A. and Altai Assets Corp, which in turn own Grupo M Holding, the company’s holding entity.

The total project costs are estimated at $425 million. The proposed IFC investment would be loans of up to $50 million for IFC’s own account.

50.0 million (USD)

Product Line	IFC Investment (million USD)
Risk Management
Guarantee
Loan	50.0
Equity

* These investment figures are indicative

The company is headquartered in Costa Rica. Grupo Monge operates stores in Costa Rica (180), Nicaragua (52), Honduras (36), Guatemala (10) and El Salvador (47). This project will result in approximately 175 additional stores mainly across mid to small rural cities in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

The project’s development impact includes:

- Expanded access to high quality products to lower-income segments of the population;
- Improved access to consumer credit for lower-income individuals, specially in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador;
- Increased direct employment with adequate compensation and training;
- Enhanced the benefit of modern organized retailing to an underserved market segment, which has traditionally been serviced by informal and unorganized stores; and
- Added tax revenue sources for the local governments.

IFC’s expected development contributions are as follows:

- IFC will provide long-term debt with adequate tenor and grace period to support the growth strategy of the company and support the debt restructuring exercise;
- IFC will also provide advice on environmental and social matters, particularly regarding Life, Fire and Safety, in order to help align the company’s practices with international best practice standards.

This is a Category B Project according to IFC’s Procedure for Environmental and Social Review of Projects because, as a result of its due diligence, IFC has concluded that the potential adverse environmental and social impacts presented by the project are few in number, site-specific and have been or can be readily mitigated by adhering to generally recognized performance standards, guidelines or design criteria.

The key environmental and social issues in ongoing operations are environmental and social management, terms of employment and provision of safe working conditions, management of solid waste, life and fire safety, security management, and wood supply chain. While all Performance Standards are applicable to this investment, the environmental and social impacts described must be managed in a manner consistent with the following Performance Standards:

- PS1: Social and Environmental Assessment and Management Systems;
- PS2: Labor and Working Conditions;
- PS3: Pollution Prevention and Abatement;
- PS4: Community Health, Safety and Security;
- PS5: Land Acquisition and Involuntary Resettlement; and
- PS6: Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Natural Resource Management.