WASHINGTON, D.C., Oct. 31 -- The International
Finance Corporation (IFC) has signed an agreement to provide Indo-Jordan
Chemicals Company Limited with $30 million in loan financing for a greenfield
phosphoric acid project at Eshidiya in Jordan. IFC played a pivotal role
in helping to structure the venture and in assisting with the mobilization
of $100 million of loans required to finance this $170 million project.
Other providers of loan finance will be a consortium of French commercial
banks led by Credit Commercial de France and co-led managed by Banque National
de Paris under a COFACE buyer's credit. The Dutch development bank, FMO,
and local Jordanian banks, including Arab Bank plc, will also be involved.
Indo-Jordan Chemicals Company Limited is a joint venture between Jordan
Phosphate Mines Company Limited, one of the largest phosphate producers
who will supply the rock required to produce phosphoric acid, and Southern
Petrochemical Industries Corporation Limited, a major Indian fertilizer
producer, who
will buy the phosphoric acid to manufacture phosphate fertilizers. The
third partner will be The Arab Investment Company, a regional financial
investment company. The plant will produce 220,000 tons per year of phosphoric
acid and will be built in accordance with a turn-key contract with Krebs
& Cie of France. The project will be commissioned in 1997. "This
is an important collaboration between a producer and a consumer from two
developing countries. It capitalizes upon Jordan's competitive advantage
in supplying phosphates to meet India's huge demand for fertilizers,"
said Mr. Jean-Philippe Halphen, Director of IFC's Chemicals, Petrochemicals
and Fertilizers Department. IFC is a member of the World Bank Group and
is the largest multilateral source of equity and loan financing for private
sector projects in developing countries.
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