Announcement of IFC's First Investment in the Dominican Republic of More than Seven Million US Dollars for a Cement Plant on November 27, 1973

~:::i INTERNATIONAL FIN A-,NCE, C·O RPO RAT I ON STREET. N.W., WASHINGTON D. C. 20,:4,33 TELEPHONE'.: EXECUTIVE 3-6360 IFC Press Release No.73/23 . For use in morning new:spapers o:f Tuesday, November 27, 1973 IFC's First Investment in the Dominican Re ublic More than US 7 million :for a cement pl.ant The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member o:f the World Bank Group, is making its :first investment in the Dominican Republic - in a US$34.5· million cement. plant. The IFC investment, a :financial package totalling US$7.38. million equivalent, consists o:f a loan o:f US$6 million, an equity participation o:f US$1.2 million equivalent, and a contingent commitment of US$l80,000. It is being made in Cementos Nacionales, S.A., which will establish a cement plant near • the port o:f San Pedro de Macoris, about 70 kms. east of Santo Domingo, to help t~e Dominican Republic become self-sufficient in :filling its cement requirements •. Financing Loan capital totalling $22. 5 million will be provided as follows: $7. l millionby the Export-Import Bank o:f the United States, $7.l million by ChemicaJ. Bank and The Chase Manhattan :Bank (N .A.), $6 million by IFC and $2. 3 million by a local bank. Sixty five per cent of the equity capital, which totals $12 million, will be owned locally as follows: 25% oy the Corporaci6n Dominicana de Empresas Estatales (CORDE), a Government owned corporation for investments in industrial and commer- cial enterprises; 8% by the Corporaci6n Financiera Asociada S.A. (COFINASA), a Dominican private development banking institution; and 32% by other private in- vestors. IFC will have 10%, and Gulf and Western Industries, Inc. wili\ own the • remainder • /more  0 0 /} () Economic Effects - 2 - . /; • The new plant, which will have a productive capacity ot 510,000 tons per ,year using the dry process, will supply about 50 per cent of the expected local consumption of· cement. This has been increasing at an average annual rate of 8.6 per cent over the pa.st 20 ye8,J;'.'s, and even reached an average of 17.T per cent from 1966 to 1972 as a resul1?, of the Government's emphasis on pu\lil.ic works. Commercial operation is expected to begin in September 1975. :, - 0 - • •