Project Name	Guatemala-Pantaleon Group Expansion
Region	Latin America and Caribbean
Sector	Manufacturing
Project No	004216
Projected Board Date	July 28, 1995
Companies Name	Pantaleon, S.A. and Concepcion, S.A.

Technical Partner and/or Major Shareholders

Pantaleon, S.A. is 100% owned by members of the Herrera family.  Concepcion, S.A. shareholding structure is as follows:  Herrera family (37%), Pantaleon, S.A. (17%), Nottebohm family (28%), and Widmann family (18%)

Project Cost	US$83 million (of which Pantaleon component, US$58 million and Concepcion component, US$25 million)
IFC Investment	US$25 million (of which US$20 million for Pantaleon and US$5 million for Concepcion)

Location of Project and Description of Site

Escuintla Department, Guatemala 70 Kms Southwest of Guatemala City

Description of Company and Purpose of Project

Pantaleon and Concepcion are two leading cane sugar factories operating in Guatemala since the late 1800s and early 1900s, respectively; they are now part of the Pantaleon group.  Pantaleon and Concepcion currently produce, on a combined basis, about 273,000 MTY of cane sugar.  The project will:  (i) expand the companies own cane growing operations by about 2,600 ha, (ii) increase total sugar output by 110,045 MTY, and (iii) increase existing electricity generation capacities to at least 164 Gwh by burning bagasse during the 170-day harvest period, and using fuel oil during the off-season.  The project will also expand Pantaleon group''s ongoing technical assistance program to a large number of small sugarcane farmers.

Environmental Category and Issues

This is an environmental category B project according to IFC''s environmental review procedure.  The project includes upgrading and expansion of Pantaleon''s and Concepcion''s cane growing and processing facilities including installation of co-generation units at both plants.  The wastewater from the two processing plants are treated and used as irrigation water in the sugar cane plantations.  Solid organic matter from the process is used as fuel in the co-generation units.  As part of the project flue gas treatment systems will be installed to remove particulate from the offgas.  The companies have also agreed during the project implementation to change to a fuel quality that will bring the two plants into full compliance with World Bank guidelines.


The Environmental Review Summary is expected to be available on or about
July 10, 1995 from the Public Information Center.

Host country location of environmental documents:  Pantaleon, Diagonal 6,
10-31, Zona 10, Guatemala City, Guatemala

Date SPI sent to PIC June 19, 1995

For additional Information contact:  Corporate Relations Unit-
telephone:  (202) 473-7711
facsimile:  (202) 676-0365


Environmental documents for this project are available at http://www.ifc.org and from the World Bank InfoShop (http://www.worldbank.org/html/pic/aboutinfo.html).