Announcement of IFC Investment in Editorial Codex Sociedad Anonima, Argentina on August 12, 1969

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE . ... ,! . - INTERNATIONAL F I NANCE :1c OR PORAT IO 1 • 818 H STREET, N.W., WAS~ I NGTON D. C. 20433-' TELEPHONE: EXECUTIVE 3-6360 IFC News Release No. 69/15 SUBJECI': ·IFC Investment in Editorial Cod@x August 12, 1969 Sociedad Anonima~rgentina IFC Makes First Investment Ih Printing and Publishing Field The International Finance Corporation, aff:iliat'e of the World Bank, announced toda; that it will help a leading Latin American printing and publishing firm expand production and enlarge and modernize its selling methods. -' The commitment of $7 million to Editorial Codex Sociedad Anonima, of Buenos 0 Aires, will be ,IFC' s first venture in the printing and publishing field, continuing diversification of IFC inYeitments in less developed countries into service busi- nesses. IFC invests to strengthen private ente,:rprise in developing member natibp.s. /: • In recent years it has added commitments to tourism, utilities and food storage to its investments in manufacturing, mining and development banks. The IFC commitment to Editorial Codex will help finance an expansion and modernization program with total costs equivalent to $25.7 million. Ten North American and.European financial institutions are participating in the IFC commitment to the Editorial Codex project. They include: Bamerical Inter- national Financial Corporation, investment subsidiary of the Bank of America N.T. & S.A., San Francisco; Loeb, Rhoades International, Nauau, the Bahamas, a corporate affiliate of Loeb, Rhoades & Company, New York; Handelsfinanz A.G. of i Switzerland, a member of the Banca Commerciale Italiana Group, Italy; Girard Inter- national Investment Corporation, a subsidiary of Girard Trust Bank of Philadelphia; Provident International Corporation, a subsidiary of Provident National Bank, ... Philadelphia; Allied Bank International, New York, overseas investment affiliate of • a group of United States banks; Berliner Hande ls-Gesie llschaft, Germany; I>resdner (more)  I r.:, 2 - • Bank, A.G. and its subsidiary, Deutsch-Sudametikanische Bank Aktiengesellschaft, Germany; and Banque Francaise du Coamerce Exterieur-, ,France. Editorial Codex was established in 1944, an4 is owned by Argentines. It produces a wide variety of books and magazines on art, hist-ory, natura 1 sciences, ( ~· technology, food and the home, as well as textbooks, encyclopedias and dictionaries. In the program IFC is helping to finance, the company'r:s printing, binding, storage and ':sl\ipping facilities ~ill be enlarged, integrated arid consolidated in a single plant at Martinez, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, at a cost equivalent to approximately $11.2 million. The balance will supply working capital to finance expansion of sales in the Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries. The sales expansion will be based partly on the large-scale introduction of computerized marketing techniques, and partly on intensification of traditional selling methods. • Editorial Codex has more than 3,600 full-time and 1,95o' part-time employees. Its export sales in 1968 were approximately $6 million out of total sales of $17 million. IFC's commitment is the largest single investment in the Editorial Codex expansion project. Equity investors in Editorial Codex are IFC, $2 million, and private inves- tors, $2 million. IFC is also making a $5 million loan to the company towards the total loan requirements of $17.1 million equivalent. The rest is being met by I suppliers' and construction ~tedits of $6.S million equivalent and Argentine sources, ,\ i/ '\\ ,J including a $900,000 equivalent Banco de Galicia loan. Proceeds from sales of $1.2 million equivalent of existing assets that will not be required after the expansion and consolidation, plus cash generation of $3.4 • million equivalent, complete the financing • (more)  ) ... - 3 - 4' The Editorial Codex investment is IFC's second in Argentina this year. With itj the Corporation has committed a total of $23.71 million to seven Argentine private enterprises in the publishing, pulp and paper, steel, automotive, and petrochemical fields. ! • •