ICBC and Standard Bank provide CFA 42 billion syndicated buyer’s credit loan for San Pédro Stadium Construction Project (Linked to Record ID#92251)

Project narrative

On March 6, 2018, ICBC and Standard Bank signed a syndicated buyer’s credit loan agreement worth CFA 42,080,765,991.49 with the Government of Cote d'Ivoire for the San Pédro Stadium Construction Project (as captured via Record ID#60790). The borrowing terms of the loan are unknown. However, it is known that Sinosure provided $81.67 million of credit insurance (covering the loan’s principal and interest). It is also known that the borrower was expected to use the proceeds of the loan to finance a commercial (EPC) contract between China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) and the Government of Cote d'Ivoire’s Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Leisure, which was also signed on March 6, 2018. According to the Government of Côte d'Ivoire’s Aid Management Platform (AMP), the syndicated loan from ICBC and Standard Bank had achieved a 92.3% disbursement rate (CFA 38,842,531,925.14 out of CFA 42,080,765,991.49) as of December 31, 2022. The lenders made 6 disbursements (worth CFA 38,842,531,925.14) between 2019 and 2022: a CFA 3,410,847,701 disbursement on December 31, 2019, a CFA 6,257,514,416 disbursement on January 31, 2020, a CFA 2,774,324,403 disbursement on February 28, 2020, a CFA 12,575,086,225 disbursement on April 30, 2021, a CFA 5,722,207,924.75 disbursement on December 31, 2021, and a CFA 8,102,551,255.39 disbursement on December 31, 2022. According to the Government of Côte d'Ivoire’s AMP, a second loan — or bond issue contract (‘Contrat d'émission d'obligation Petrus’) — worth CFA 15,312,691,693.94 was issued by ICBC London to the Government of Cote d’Ivoire on December 13, 2018 in support of the San Pédro Stadium Construction Project and the Korhogo Stadium Construction Project. As of December 31, 2022, this loan (captured via Record ID#92251) had not yet disbursed. The purpose of the San Pédro Stadium Construction Project was to construct a new 20,000-seat Olympic stadium (with an area of 22,409 m², 2,000 parking spaces, access roads, and water, sanitation, electricity, and fiber optic infrastructure) in the western city of San Pédro (exact locational coordinates: 4.816944, -6.629444) and an athletes' village (including 32 villas with five rooms each). Another objective of the project was to rehabilitate four training grounds (including the Auguste Denise stadium, a technical college, and a municipal high school). The San Pedro Olympic stadium is being built 200 meters from the road at the south-eastern entrance to the city of San Pedro near the road to Abidjan. It was financed and built in preparation for the facility to host the 2023 African Cup of Nations football tournament. The Côte d’Ivoire Branch of China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) [CCECC-CI or 中国土木工程集团（科特迪瓦）有限公司] was the general EPC contractor responsible for implementation. China Railway 19th Bureau, China Railway Urban Construction Group (CRUC), and Omni Travaux (a French company) also apparently served as sub-contractors. On November 9, 2018, CCECC, China Railway 19th Bureau, and China Railway Urban Construction Group (CRUC) signed a cooperation agreement to carry out the project together. A groundbreaking ceremony took place on February 23, 2019. Construction was initially scheduled to end on December 31, 2020. However, as of June 13, 2020, Director General Mariame Koné of the Direction Office National des Sports (ONS) reported that the project had only achieved a 25% completion rate. Project implementation delays resulted from the Covid-19 pandemic and the Government of Cote d'Ivoire not paying CCECC in a timely manner (upon receipt of invoices). As of the last quarter of 2020, the construction of the stadium resumed. The project ultimately reached completion in September 2023. The Laurent Pokou Stadium hosted its inaugural official match on September 9, 2023, when Ivory Coast secured a 1–0 victory over Lesotho in a 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier. According to a February 2024 New York Times article,'[Ivorian] [g]overnment officials said local teams would use the [stadium] infrastructure once the [2023 African Cup of Nations football] tournament was over, but in the resort town of San Pedro, home to a new 20,000-seat stadium built by a Chinese company, the city’s main soccer club said the facility was too big for its needs.' Abdelkarim Bouaziz, an executive at F.C. San Pedro, told the New York Times that '[a]t best we might manage to fill it at 30 percent. [...] But we won’t be able to pay for its maintenance.'