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| Description of company and purpose of project |
| Unibanco - União de Banco Brasileiros S.A (Unibanco, bank or the company) is one of the leading Brazilian private financial groups (third largest private sector banking group by assets) with a strong position in most financial product areas. The bank has historically exhibited good profitability and has a strong balance sheet, a diversified loan risk portfolio, and has maintained adequate asset quality ratios – even during the recent period of domestic and international market volatility. The purpose of the project is to assist Unibanco in its external funding strategy. |
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| Project sponsor and major shareholders of project company |
| The Moreira Salles Group owns two-thirds of the voting shares of Unibanco Holdings, which controls Unibanco (96% of voting shares). Unibanco shares are traded both in the local stock market and the NYSE. |
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| Total project cost and proposed IFC investment |
| The proposed IFC investment is an IFC credit facility of up to $60 million. |
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| Location of project and description of site |
| Location of the project is in Brazil. |
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| Project Development Impact and IFC's Role |
| As a result of global risk aversion, international capital and bank markets remain effectively closed for Brazilian borrowers/issuers at tenors beyond 1 year. This situation has existed since mid-2002. The proposed project makes possible long-tenor and favorably priced financing to a major Brazilian bank at a time when equivalent financing would not be possible. The project fits in well with the World Bank Group strategy of promoting sustainable development prospects in Brazil – supporting companies that will generate growth; activity which demonstrates tangible benefits of liberalization; and investing in the financial sector and physical infrastructure – as it provides needed finance at a time of global risk aversion to Brazil’s banking sector, a priority area of the economy. |
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| Environmental and social issues - Category C |
This is an environmental review category C project and therefore no further environmental review is required.
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| To contact the project company, please write to: |
Investement Officers:
Xavier Jordan (xjordan@ifc.org),
Selena Ee (see@ifc.org) |
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