Announcement of IFC Invests in Cameroon Project Eight Million Eighty Nine Thousand US Dollars for Rubber, Palm Oil Estate on October 28, 1976

• Internatiorw1 Finance Corporation 1818 H ·street, N.W. -- Washington. D.C. 20433, U.S.A. 202-393-6360 -,;nr·fiff\!/Bi& IFC Press Release No. 77/9 Thu1·sday, October 28, 1976 IFC Invests in Cameroon Project $889,000 for Rubber, Palm Oil Estate The International Finance Corporation ·(IFC), an affiliate of the World Bank, is making an equity investment of approximately $889,000 in S.A.F.A. Cameroun S.A.C. for a $5.6 million project to improve and expand production at an existing rubber estate and to diversify output into palm oil and palm kernels. Societe Nationale d'Investissement is providing $444,ooo equivalent in equity and $444,000 equivalent in loan for the project and Caisse Centrale de Cooperation Economique of France is lending $2,445,000 equivalent through Banque Camerounaise de Developpement. Cash generation of some $1,409,000 • equivalent completes the financing. S.A.F.A. Cameroun is owned by Societe Africaine Forestiere et Agricole, an affiliate of the Rivaud Group, and by Compagnie Financiere pour l'Outre Mer, both of France. The new financing will introduce into the company local participation which will be increased if, as contemplated, IFC sells its participation to local investors at a later date. The project involves the planting of 2,285 acres of high-yield rubber trees and 4,815 acres of high-yield palm trees, and the maintenance of some 2,670 acres of rubber and palm trees recently planted by the company. At peak output, the project is expected to yield annually 2,200 metric tons of rubber, 8,600 tons of palm oil and 1,700 tons of palm kernels. Slightly less than half of tne new plantings will replace aging rubber trees with the remainder being made on land now covered by tropical forest. ~rhe Company's estate is located at Dizanque in the southern coastal zone of Cameroon. All of the new rubber production will be exported.. The bulk of the _palm oil production will be consumed locally and should ensure Cameroon's • self-sufficiency in palm oil through the ne~t ten years. (Any inquiries strictly relating to IFC's participation in this project should be directed to the IFC .Information Office, 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20433, Telephone (202) 477-6247.