Irrawaddy Towers (IFC-35935)

Countries
  • Myanmar
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • International Finance Corporation (IFC)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Proposed
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
B
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."
Voting Date
Mar 16, 2017
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
IRRAWADDY GREEN TOWERS LTD
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Communications
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)
$ 42.50 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.
Project Cost (USD)
$ 490.00 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.
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ IFC website

Updated in EWS Sep 16, 2019

Disclosed by Bank May 17, 2016

Contribute Information
Can you contribute information about this project?
Contact the EWS Team

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.

Irrawaddy Towers Asset Holding ("ITAH") (incorporated in Singapore) is the owner of Irrawaddy Green Towers ("IGT" or the company) an independent telecommunications Tower Company headquartered in Yangon, Myanmar. IFC is seeking to place i) an equity investment of up to US$30 million, ii) debt investment of up to US$30 million from IFC's own account; and (iii) mobilizing up to US$30 million of potential parallel financing to IGTIFC's investment, through ITAH, will be used to partially finance IGT's 4,939 telecom towers business plan as follows: (i) complete IGT's capital expenditure program for the construction of 1,839 built-to-suit (BTS) towers; (ii) cover IGT's capital expenditure program for the construction of 1,100 new BTS towers; and (iii) support a further order of up to 2,000 new BTS towers.

As of November 18, 2015, there were 1,639 towers already built with an additional 1,300 under various stages of development/construction (site acquisition, site preparation, and construction). As an independent tower operator, towers are designed for multi-tenant usage, allowing the company to lease tower space to multiple mobile operators.

IFC has reviewed technical information provided by IGT. The scope of IFC's appraisal included a review of IGT's management capacity to provide adequate oversight of environmental, social, health and safety aspects of its business. The review relied on documents and reports made available by IGT, along with site visits by IFC's technical team to a number of IGT's operating sites in Yangon, Myanmar during November 2014 and November 2015. Interviews were conducted by IFC staff during meetings with IGT's Quality, Health Safety and Environmental ("QHSE") management team in Yangon.

The project sponsors include Alcazar Towers Limited and M1 Telecom. Alcazar Towers, owned by the family of Alcazar Capital Limited’s (“Alcazar”) Chairman Maroun Semaan, was established together with other SPVs affiliated with Alcazar's directors and partners to develop the tower business in Myanmar. Alcazar is a financial advisory firm focused on frontier market private equity investments, M&A and project development opportunities, particularly in telecoms and logistics. Alcazar is a private company and is registered in the Dubai International Financial Centre and regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority.

M1 Telecom is part of M1 Group, an investment holding with international interests including telecommunications, real estate, aviation, fashion and retail, energy, financial asset management and transport. M1 is majority owned by Taha Mikati and Najib Mikati. M1 Group is a DIFC Entity and it is a private company.

IGT is owned by ITAH, which holds 99.99% of the shares in IGT. ITAH is in turn owned by companies affiliated with Alcazar (Alcazar Towers Limited (a company owned by the family of Alcazar Capital Limited Chairman Maroun Semaan); ACL Dagon Tower Holding Pte Ltd (a company owned by the family of Alcazar Capital Limited CEO Charbel Abou-Jaoude and by Alcazar Capital Limited partner Patrick Tangney), and Alcazar Projects Ltd, a company owned by Alcazar Capital Limited employees and directors) and by M1 Telecom. The companies affiliated with Alcazar Capital Limited collectively have a majority of the voting interest in ITAH.

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

US$ 10 million equity investment from IFC


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.

Ayad Chammas, Chief Executive Officer
Irrawaddy Green Towers Limited
308 Ahlone Road
Dagon Township, Yangon, Myanmar
Telephone: +95-9798601600
Email: ayad.chammas@irrawaddytowers.com

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF IFC
The Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by an IFC or MIGA- financed project. If you submit a complaint to the CAO, they may assist you in resolving a dispute with the company and/or investigate to assess whether the IFC is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. If you want to submit a complaint electronically, you can email the CAO at CAO@worldbankgroup.org. You can learn more about the CAO and how to file a complaint at http://www.cao-ombudsman.org/

How it works

How it works