The loan will allow the company to step up the production of sanitizing products and boost liquidity
São Paulo, Brazil, October 9, 2020 – IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is providing a long-term loan of up to US$ 27.5 million to Jalles Machado, a sugarcane processing company and biomass producer based in the state of Goias. The loan will help Jalles Machado address the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, preserving financial liquidity and jobs in the agribusiness sector, which is fundamental to the Brazilian economy.
IFC's investment in Jalles Machado includes an up to US$ 20 million seven-year loan from IFC's own account, and an up to US$ 7.5 million five-year loan mobilized from Rabobank. The resources will ensure that Jalles Machado continues to play an essential role in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the state of Goias, increasing its production capacity for sanitizing products and improving their packaging, ensuring the continued supply of these essential products in the region to cope with the pandemic.
With this investment, IFC is supporting Jalles Machado in mitigating the impacts the pandemic has had on fuel ethanol sales. IFC's financing will help the company strengthen its working capital and liquidity, as well as create a new business motivator during the temporary reduction of demand for fuel ethanol. An IFC client since 2017, Jalles Machado has adopted and implemented IFC's Environmental and Social Performance Standards, helping to raise the industry’s sustainability benchmark.
"Since the first loan, in 2017, IFC has been supporting us strongly not only via investment financing, but especially in our pursuit of improvements in the company's social and environmental sustainability standards. This new loan seals our long-term partnership, which proves to be even more important in times of economic uncertainty such as this," says Otavio Lage de Siqueira Filho, CEO of Jalles Machado.
"IFC teams up with its clients to help Brazil cope with the negative economic impacts of the pandemic," says Carlos Leiria Pinto, IFC Brazil Country Manager. “Agribusiness is an important sector of the Brazilian economy. In addition to supporting Jalles Machado's increase in its production, IFC's investment will allow the company to play a key role during the pandemic and will stimulate improvements in the sustainability standards of the sugar and ethanol industry in the country," he adds.
IFC promotes the inclusive economic development of agribusiness by financing its complete value chain. Over the past five fiscal years, IFC has invested more than US$ 1 billion in Brazil’s agribusiness and forestry sector in long-term investments, including US$ 479 million mobilized from other investors.
In the fiscal year 2020, IFC's new long-term investments in Brazil, across all sectors, totaled US$ 2.2 billion, including US$ 615 million in third-party resources. IFC has been investing in Brazil’s private sector since 1957 to address the country's most critical development challenges, including those of urbanization, social inclusion, competitiveness and productivity, and management of natural resources.
About Jalles Machado
Founded in 1981 in the Central-West of Brazil, Jalles Machado operates two industrial plants with a combined annual milling capacity of 5.2 million tons of sugarcane. It produces anhydrous, hydrous, and organic ethanol, organic, white, and VHP sugar, sanitizing products, and dry yeast. It partners with Albioma Participações do Brasil, exporting energy from the two units. It is the largest producer of organic sugar in Brazil and the largest exporter of organic sugar in Brazil. Jalles Machado differentiates itself in the sector with a portfolio of high added value products - with an average 32% of revenue in the last two harvests coming from the sale of non-commodity products - and verticalization, participating in soil preparation, planting 100% of its own sugarcane, harvesting, processing, storage, transportation and sales under the Itajá brand.
About IFC
IFC—a member of the World Bank Group—is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. We work in more than 100 countries, using our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in developing countries. In fiscal year 2020, we invested $22 billion in private companies and financial institutions in developing countries, leveraging the power of the private sector to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity. For more information, visit www.ifc.org .
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