Early Warning System

Countries

Ecuador

Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.

Financial Institutions

US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC)

International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.

Project Status

Active

Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.

Bank Risk Rating

Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."

Borrower

Gamma Knife Ecuador

A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.

Sectors

Education and Health

The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.

Investment Type(s)

Loan

The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.

Investment Amount (USD)

$ 3.17 million

Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.

Bank Documents

Project Disclosure [Original Source]

Media Documents

American Shared Hospital Services Announces Acquisition of Gamma Knife Center, Ecuador S.A.

Primary Source

Original disclosure @ DFC website

Updated in EWS Jun 24, 2022

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Project Description

If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

This Project involves a seven-year, $3.375 million OPIC loan to Gamma Knife Ecuador to finance the acquistion of outstanding equity ownership, upgrade of equipment, and working capital for an existing brain cancer treatment facility and unique clinic named Gamma Knife Center Ecuador located in Guayaquil, Ecuador (the :Project:). The Borrower offers medical services to detect and treat certain types of brain tumors, arteriovenous malformations, and other brain dysfunctions using cutting edge technology, that is both extremely accurate and has above average therapeutic response, and highly-qualified and experienced medical staff. The Project’s total cost is expected to be $3.75 million, with the remaining financing coming from the investors in the form of equity. In 2009, a Leksell Gamma Knife Machine Model 4C was acquired by the Project from Elekta, which is the Swedish Company that owned the patent and developed new medical technologies, such as the non-invasive medical procedures that uses radioactive Cobalt-60. The first patient was succesfully treated in October 2011. Since 2011, the Borrower has treated more than 1,000 patients and intends to upgrade or replace their current machine and resources within one year. The new technology implemented through the project will be Leksell Gamma Knife Machine New Model Perfexion recently developed by Elekta for an estimated cost of $1.5 million available in the market.

Investment Description

Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC)

Private Actor 1	Private Actor 1 Role	Private Actor 1 Sector	Relation	Private Actor 2	Private Actor 2 Role	Private Actor 2 Sector
-	-	-	-	American Shared Hospital Services	Investor	-
-	-	-	-	Gamma Knife Financing, LLC	Investor	-

Contact Information

This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

**The "Contact Information" was not available at the moment of the snapshot.**

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

Unlike many other development finance institutions, DFC does not currently have an access to information policy.

Under the United States Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), DFC is obliged to respond to reasonably formulated requests for Agency records. However, DFC may apply exemptions from release to certain types of information and may charge fees in responding to requests. DFC has a designated FOIA officer who is trained in how to respond to requests and implement the law. You can learn more about filing a FOIA request at: https://www.dfc.gov/foia.

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF THE UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT FINANCE CORPORATION (DFC)

The Office of Accountability is an independent office that addresses complaints about environmental or social issues related to DFC-supported projects. The office provides communities an opportunity to have concerns independently reviewed and addressed. If you submit a complaint to the Office of Accountability, it may assist you by either seeking to address your problems by facilitating a problem solving dialogue between you and those implementing the project and/or investigating whether the DFC complied with its policies to prevent environmental, social, human rights, and labor harms.

You can find more information about the Office of Accountability at: https://www.dfc.gov/who-we-are/office-accountability.