Announcement of Fifteen Million US Dollars Loan for Industry in Morocco on January 14, 1970

0 FOR IMMEDl•ATE RELEASE ' i INTERNATIONAL BANK FbR . • RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT 16,\18 .H S;'fREET, N.W., WASHINGTON D. C. 20433 TELEPHONE: E)(ECUTIVE 3-6360 Bank Press Releas~ Noc, 70/2 Subject: $15 miUion ·, loan for January 14, 1970 industry in Morocco. The World Bank has approved a loan of $15 million to the Banque Nationale pour le Developpement Economique (BNDE), a qevelopment finance company in Morocco. The loan will provide BNDE with the foreign exchange it will need for loans and investments for industrial enterprises until early 1971. Established in 1959, BNDE is the largest institutional ~ource of medium and long-term.finance for-industrial enterprises in Morocco. 'BNDE also subscribes to .... . ' shares in new or expanding businesses, helps to set up new companies, guarantees • investments made by other institutions, and discounts medium-term credits made by commercial banks. Since its inception, BNDE's transactions have numbered nearly 600 and its financial assistance has amounted to some DH 836 million ($165 million). Most of its transactions have been in the form of loans. The World Bank has provided BNDE with all its foreign exchange resources which, including the loan announced '·today, will have amounted to $62.5 million. The Bank's affiliate, the Inter- national Finance Corporation, has invested about $1 million in shares of BNDE, and, after the Moroccan Government, is the largest single shareholder. In recent years BNDE has been providing finance for a major share of new investments and there are few new industrial enterprises which have not re- ceived some form of financial assistance from the company. Over a third of BNDE's business in 1968 and most of that in 1969 has been in tourism, mainly • /more I lk~nk P.R. tlo. 70/2 /\ .. Morocco-Industry - 2 - / :I through its participation, in loans made for hotel construction by the Credit 8 ~ G Immobilier et Hotelier (CIH), a credit institution speci~lizing in housing i, and hotel financing. In t fe future it: is expected that practically all of 1 I 0 . t BNDE s lending will be for ind us tr!al\?ro jects ~, al though the' company will continue to play a: promotionaf'role aJtd take equity participati:ons in tourism 'l i:'rojects. BlIDE' s loan col1lll,\:lt:m~nts ·.: c,, "reache..'1 a new record in 19(>9 of DH 68 mil- lion 0 ($13J.5 million).' Projects under consideration rcover a variety =of indus- ,;:. tries including cement, textiles, Pcparmaceuticals, fish meal, tr:~n~\port, ; '.',,! packaging and electronic assembly. The World Bank loan to BNDE will carry a~ interest. rate of 7%- and will be guaranteed by the Kingdom (, ~?f Morocccf. ii Repayment of 'the loan by BNDE .to II /! the World Bank will conform a,pproximately to repayments receivi~d by BNDE on • its own sub-loans from Bank funds, which will not extend for periods beyond 15 years. - 0 - •