China Eximbank provides loan for Alima Palace Hotel Construction Project

In 2008, China Eximbank issued a loan to a special purpose vehicle (SPV), which was created by Société d'Exploitation Hôtelière au Congo (Sodexh-Congo SA), for the Alima Palace Hotel Construction Project. Sodexh-Congo SA is a subsidiary of Pefaco Hotels, the hotel division of a Spanish holding company called Grupo Pefaco. The total cost of the project was CFA 21 billion and it was implemented on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis. The face value of the China Eximbank loan that supported this project is unknown. The borrowing terms of the loan are also unknown. The project involved the construction of a five-star hotel called Alima Palace (also known as the Alima Palace Hotel) — with 116 luxury rooms and 6 upscale suites — on the outskirts of the city of Oyo. The hotel is within walking distance of the Komo River and it borders the Oyo-Ollombo special economic zone (SEZ). The hotel features a 160-seat banquet hall, conference rooms, restaurants, boutiques, spas, games rooms, and public restrooms. It generates its own electricity. Beijing Construction Engineering Group (BCEG) was the contractor responsible for implementation. Construction, which involved 100 Chinese workers and 300 Congolese workers, began on May 5, 2008 and ended on January 1, 2012. On March 12, 2013, the hotel was officially inaugurated by the Congolese Minister of the DGGT, Jean-Jacques Bouya, and Congolese Tourism and Environment Minister, Josué Rodrigue Ngouonimba, and other local dignitaries.

Additional details

1. This hotel is also known as the Pefaco Hotel Alima Palace. The Chinese project title is OYO酒店 or 阿丽玛宾馆 or 如ALIMA宾馆. The French project title is Le grand Hôtel Alima-Palace or La construction de l’hôtel Alima à Oyo. 2. The China Eximbank loan that supported this project is not included in the database of Chinese loan commitments that SAIS-CARI released in July 2020. Nor is it included in the Chinese Overseas Development Finance Dataset published by Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center in December 2020. 3. AidData set flow class as OOF-Like since this project involves a PPP with debt and equity contributions, which implies at least some level of commercial intent. 4. The face value of the loan is unknown. For the time being, AidData assumes that the CFA 21 billion was financed according to a debt-to-equity ratio of 70:30. This issue warrants further investigation.

Number of official sources

12

Number of total sources

18