Announcement of Additional IFC Investment in Productos de Concreto, S.A. Costa Rica on September 17, 1965

r 9IJ"TERN.ATI0NAL FINANCE CORPORATION 1818 H STREET, N.W., WASHINGTON D. C. 20433 TELEPHONE: EXECUTIVE 3-6360 IFC Press Release No. 65/9 Subje~: Additional IFC InYestment in For Release AM Newspapers Productos de Concreto, S.A. Friday., September 17, 1965 Costa Rica The International Finance Corporation (IFC), an affiliate of the World Bank, has signed an agreement to underwrite a new share issue and an issue of u.s. dollar notes being offered to Costa Rican investors by Productos de Concreto., S.A., the leading manufacturer of concrete products in Costa Rica. The overall IFC commit- ment under the agreement amounts to approximately $320.,000. This is IFC's second investment in Productos de Concreto: in 1962, the Corporation provided the equiva- lent of $270,000 in loan and share capital to help finance an expansion progr~ undertaken by the company• •• Bamerical International Financial Corporation., a subsidiary of Bank of America, N.T. & S.A. and a participant in the original IFC investment, is taang part in the new IFC commitment as well. The IFC underwriting will assure the company of the major part of the funds required to carry out a new expansion and modernization program costing the equiva- lent of nearly ~500,000. The remainder of the financing is being provided by the Banco de Costa Rica in the form of a long-term loan equivalent to $177,000, drawn from an Inter-American Development Bank line of credit. Established in 1955, Productos de Concreto is the largest manufacturer of concrete products in the Central American Common Harket area. The company makes a wide range of pre-stressed and post-stressed products, including concrete pipe, blocks, power poles, railway ties, tiles and terrazzo. Demand for the company's • products has now reached the point where further expansion is ~ecessary,  - 2 - 1111111 particularly in the concrete pipe divisiono The main part or the present program involves the purchase of additional pipe-making and other machinery and provision for an increase in the company 1 s permanent working capital. Extensive government projects in respect to water supply, sewerage, low-cost housing and rural electrification in Costa Rica have created strong demand in recePt years for concrete products such as pipe, blocks and power poles. Productos de Concreto, along wlth the rest of the construction industry, has already bene- fited from this demand, and it is anticipated that the new IFC financing will place the company in a position to meet the requirements of similar large-scale projects now under consideration. • • • · , rrut -