The Group is owned and controlled by Mr. Vaja Jhashi, a Georgian and US citizen (the “Sponsor”) with extensive experience in trading in the region.

The Project cost is US$110 million. IFC is considering an investment up to US$70 million in the Group to involve a combination of A, B and C Loans. The balance of the Project will be financed with equity from the Sponsor, and internal cash generation.

55.0 million (USD)

Product Line	IFC Investment (million USD)
Risk Management
Guarantee
Loan	40.0
Equity	15.0

* These investment figures are indicative

The Group is headquartered in Chisinau, Moldova. The Project would support the Group’s operations across Moldova. To date, the Group has operations in Belti, 137 km north of Chisinau); Giurgiulesti port, located on the southern tip of Moldova; Ciadir Lunga, located in the rural south of Moldova in addition to commodity silos located across Moldova.

The expected development impact includes the following: (i) improve efficiencies of under-performing acquisition assets; (ii) support the competitiveness of a leading Group operating in a key sector to Moldova''s economy; (iii) realize benefits to local farmers in the form of integrating farmers with higher value added domestic and international markets and increased access to finance for farmers; (iv) encourage local and regional companies to consider investments in Moldova by demonstrating a successful test case; and (v) job preservation and increased tax revenues.

IFC is uniquely positioned to assist the Company in the following ways:
(i) provision of long term financing adequate to the Company''s needs: through the provision of long term capital, IFC will help the Company remain financially sound, strengthening its balance sheet and enabling it to finance its acquisition expansion with long term funds at reasonable rates not otherwise available in the country.
(ii) mobilization of capital: through the proposed B loan, IFC will seek to attract additional financing from international lender(s), helping extend available tenors to the Company and broadening the Company''s long term funding base;
(iii) risk mitigation: IFC''s presence will help provide political risk mitigation to the Company and shareholder;
(iv) global sector expertise: IFC will share it''s global agriculture sector expertise with the Company, conveying to it best practices and global know-how;
(v) corporate governance: IFC''s will help implement corporate governance best practices throughout the Group.

The key environmental, social and occupational health & safety issues associated with this investment include: 1) Quality, environmental and safety management systems and food safety programs; 2) Occupational health and safety risks for direct employees and contractors/third parties; 3) Elevator safety and dust explosion risks; 4) Energy efficiency; air emissions with the content of dust and Hexane/ VOCs (Volatile Organic Carbons); 5) Wastewater treatment and waste management, assessing of re-use of by-products; 6) Life, fire and traffic safety; 7) Labor transparency.
The Project has limited potential adverse environmental and social impacts, and those that do exist are being site-specific and can be resolved through the effective implementation of the action items in the Action Plan (ESAP), which integrate the IFC’s Performance Standards requirements and good international industry practices as defined in World Bank Group (WBG)’s general and applicable sector-specific (Vegetable Oil Processing) Environmental, Health and Safety requirements. This corporate-level investment is therefore a Category B project according to IFC’s Environmental and Social Review Procedures.