Region : Sub-Saharan Africa

Sector : Health

Project No: : 008632

Projected Board Date : March 31, 1998

Company Name : AAR Health Services Limited

Technical Partners and/or Major Shareholders: Mr. Bengt Beckmann, the founder and Jonas Jochnick, a Swedish businessman are the major shareholders. Mr. Beckmann with the assistance of a professional management team runs the Company.

Project Cost including proposed IFC Investment:

Project cost : US$ 1 million

IFC Investment : US$ 0.5 million

Location of Project and Description of Site:  The project is to provide working capital and equip medical clinics in suburbs of Nairobi, Kenya.

Description of company and purpose of Project: AAR is a managed health care organization providing in-patient hospital cover and out-patient health services at five AAR owned medical clinics in Kenya and Uganda. IFC Role is to provide equity financing and play a catalytic role. IFC is one of the very few sources of institutional equity financing in Kenya. IFC’s participation will broaden the shareholding and provide the Company with credibility and enhance AAR’s ability to enter the larger East African market. IFC’s participation will help attract other institutional investors. The project has strong development impact as it: supports the expansion of health services throughout East Africa; introduces more competition thereby leading to better quality and more affordable health services; serves to uplift the quality of life of many people who for the first time will have medical coverage; creates operational jobs with the attendant training, improvement in environmental, health and safety standards; and reduces the burden on the already over stretched public health services sector.

Environmental Categories and Issues: This is a category B project.  Key environmental mitigation measures include incineration of all pathogenic, infectious and hazardous waste, no usage of cytotoxic or genotoxic drugs, all unused and expired drugs are returned to suppliers, adequate fire safety protection measures in the medical clinics and medical checks and sanitation training for all clinic employees. Detailed information is available in the ERS, to be at the PIC before December 31, 1997.

Date SPI sent to PIC: November 26, 1997

“This Summary of Project Information (SPI) is prepared and distributed to the public in advance of consideration of the proposed transaction by the Corporation’s Board of Directors. It is provided for the purpose of enhancing the transparency of IFC’s activities and should not be construed as presuming the outcome of IFC Board consideration.”

For additional Information contact:  Corporate Relations Unit - Telephone (202) 473-7711- facsimile:

(202) 974-4384
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).