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Overview

China Eximbank provides $62.3 million loan for Mpila Shopping Center Construction Project (Linked to Record ID#60219)

Commitments (Constant USD, 2023)$63,903,098
Commitment Year•2014Country of Activity•CongoDirect Recipient Country of Incorporation•CongoSector•Other Social Infrastructure And ServicesFlow Type•Loan

Status

Project lifecycle

Implementation

Pipeline: PledgePipeline: CommitmentImplementationCompletion

Timeline

Key dates

Commitment date
Jan 1, 2014
Start (actual)
Sep 18, 2013
First repayment
Dec 31, 2017
Last repayment
Dec 29, 2027

Geospatial footprint

Map overview

Visualizes the AidData-provided feature geometry for this project.

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This project involved the construction of a shopping center in the Mpila neighborhood within the capital city of Brazzaville. More detailed locational information can be found at https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/595520607.

Stakeholders

Organizations involved in projects and activities supported by financial and in-kind transfers from Chinese government and state-owned entities

Ultimate beneficial owners

At least 25% host country ownership

Funding agencies

State-owned Policy Banks

  • Export-Import Bank of China (China Eximbank)

Receiving agencies

Government Agencies

  • Government of Republic of Congo

Implementing agencies

State-owned companies

  • China Jiangsu International
  • China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC)

Collateral providers

State-owned companies

  • Société Nationales des Pétroles Congolais (SNPC)

Loan desecription

China Eximbank provides $62.3 million loan for Mpila Shopping Center Construction Project

Grace period•4 yearsGrant element•54.3733%Interest rate (t₀)•0.25%Interest type•Fixed Interest RateMaturity•14 years

Collateral

This China Eximbank loan -- and other subsidiary China Eximbank loans approved under a June 19, 2006 framework agreement that was renewed/extended in 2012 -- was collateralized against cash proceeds from SNPC oil export sales to Chinese importers (through an offtake agreement), which were deposited in a China Eximbank-controlled escrow account. The Republic of Congo was required to maintain a minimum cash balance in the escrow account equivalent to approximately 20% of its total outstanding debt to China Eximbank. The cash balance in the China Eximbank-controlled escrow account was $534,238,226 (CFA 272,846,414,000) in 2011, an unknown amount in 2012, an unknown amount in 2013, an unknown amount in 2014, an unknown amount in 2015 (equivalent to 26% of SNPC oil sales in 2015), $281,560,937 in 2016 (equivalent to 7,558,672 barrels of oil or 32% of SNPC oil sales in 2016), $338,285,020 in 2017 (equivalent to 23.25% of SNPC oil sales in 2017), $513,780,005 in 2018 (equivalent to 7,411,386 barrels of oil, eight oil cargoes, or 30.22% of SNPC oil sales in 2018), $523,547,187 in 2019 (equivalent to 8,228,065 barrels of oil, 9 oil cargoes, or 32.56% of SNPC oil sales in 2019), $266,659,781 in 2020 (equivalent to 6,349,813 barrels of oil, 7 oil cargoes, or 31.61% of SNPC oil sales in 2020), $319,164,228 in 2021 (equivalent to 4,585,056 barrels of oil or 21.4% of SNPC oil sales in 2021), and $356,343,684 in 2022 (equivalent to 3,634,514 barrels of oil 13.09% of SNPC oil sales in 2022).

Narrative

Full Description

Project narrative

On June 19, 2006, China Eximbank and the Republic of Congo signed a $1.6 billion loan framework agreement — also known in the Republic of Congo as the “strategic partnership” (“partenariat stratégique”) — that allowed the Republic of Congo to obtain China Eximbank loans for infrastructure projects through a securitization mechanism: Société Nationales des Pétroles Congolais (SNPC)—the country’s state-owned oil company—agreed to deposit a portion of the cash proceeds from its oil exports into an escrow account that is controlled by China Eximbank. This framework agreement (captured in Record ID#60219) was ratified on October 26, 2006. One of the subsidiary loans that was approved through the framework agreement was a $62,310,857.20 loan in 2014 for the Mpila Shopping Center Construction Project. The loan carried a 14-year maturity and a 0.25% interest rate. Its estimated grace period was 4 years. The loan’s (principal) amount outstanding was $51,900,548 as of December 31, 2019. The project involved the construction of a shopping center in the Mpila neighborhood within the capital city of Brazzaville. It was part of a larger Chinese Government-funded effort to rebuild parts of Brazzaville that were destroyed by a deadly March 2012 blast at a munition’s depot in the Mpila neighborhood within the capital city of Brazzaville. China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) and China Jiangsu International Economic Technical Cooperation Corporation were the contractors responsible for implementation. This project commenced on September 18, 2013. It had achieved a 60% execution rate as of March 31, 2019.

Staff comments

1. This project is also known as the Brazzaville Shopping Center Project. The French project title is Construction Zone Commerciale de MPILA or Projet de construction de la zone commerciale de Mpila or Chantier Brazzaville Mall or Centre commercial de Mpila. The Chinese project title is 姆皮拉商业中心 or 刚果（布）MPILA商业中心. 2. In the database of Chinese loan commitments that SAIS-CARI released in July 2020, it identifies a $502 million China Eximbank loan for the ‘Brazzaville Mall’ Project and a $62 million loan for the ‘Mpila Business District’ Project. It does not record borrowing terms for either loan. AidData has not identified any official sources that confirm the existence of a $502 million China Eximbank loan. However, the Republic of Congo’s Public Debt Agency (Caisse Congolaise d’Amortissement or CCA) and Délégation Générale des Grands Travaux (DGGT) does identify an RMB 400,000,000 ($62,310,857,20) loan — with the maturity length of 14 years — for the Mpila Shopping Center Construction Project. AidData records this loan. 3. According to a 2019 report published by the Republic of Congo’s National Assembly, all loans approved under the June 19, 2006 framework agreement had an interest rate of 0.25% and grace periods between 3 and 5 years. Therefore, since the grace period of the China Eximbank loan for the Mpila Shopping Center Construction Project is missing, AidData imputes a value (4 years) at the middle of the distribution of this range as an approximation. 4. A China Eximbank source indicates that $410 million was provided for the construction of Mpila Memorial Construction Project, the Mpila Shopping Center Construction Project, and the Brazzaville Commercial Center (Mpila Twin Towers) Construction Project. This monetary value is roughly equivalent to the combined value of the 3 Chinese Eximbank loans that were issued for these projects: a $19.19 million loan for the Mpila Memorial Construction Project (captured in Project#58721), a $62.3 million loan for the Mpila Shopping Center Construction Project (captured in this project, ID#58408), and a $328.1 million loan for the Mpila Twin Towers Construction Project (captured in Record ID#58720). Other Chinese sources refer to the Mpila Memorial Construction Project and Mpila Shopping Center Construction Project together (姆皮拉纪念馆及商业中心) and describe the total cost of these projects as $81.9 million.