Absa Housing (IFC-46933)

Countries
  • South Africa
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
Approved
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
FI
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
Jun 28, 2022
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
ABSA BANK LTD
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Finance
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)
$ 124.40 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.
Currency conversion note:
Bank reported 2000
Converted using 2022-06-28 exchange rate.
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ IFC website

Updated in EWS Jul 1, 2022

Disclosed by Bank Jun 29, 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.

According to bank documents, the proposed project is an up to ZAR2 billion senior unsecured loan with a 5-year tenor to Absa Bank Ltd (“Absa” or the “Bank”) to support the expansion of its affordable mortgage finance portfolio in South Africa (“the Project”). The Project will be certified in compliance with Loan Market Association’s (“LMA”) Social Loan Principles (“SLP”). It will be the first such transaction in the market. 

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

The Project involves a 5-year senior loan of up to ZAR2 billion for IFC’s own account.

Private Actors Description
A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

Absa is the third largest bank in South Africa in terms of assets and has a market share of 22% in loans and 21% in deposits. The Bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of Absa Group Limited (“AGL” or the “Group”), the third-largest financial services group in sub-Saharan Africa. AGL provides wholesale and retail banking services, corporate and investment banking, wealth and asset management, and insurance services. Outside of South Africa, the Group is present in eleven countries in Eastern, Southern and Western Africa. In 2019, AGL became one of the founding signatories of the UN Principles for Responsible Banking, committing to strategically align its business with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Private Actor 1 Private Actor 1 Role Private Actor 1 Sector Relation Private Actor 2 Private Actor 2 Role Private Actor 2 Sector
- - - - Absa Bank Limited Client -

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.

Absa Bank Limited
Rolf Van Den Heever
Head of Capital Markets Execution
+27 (0) 11 350 4000
Rolf.VanDenHeever@absa.africa 
7th Floor, Absa Towers West 15 Troye Street, Johannesburg, 2001 PO Box 7735, Johannesburg, 2000 SA
www.absa.africa 

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

You can submit a request for information disclosure at: https://disclosures.ifc.org/#/inquiries 

If you believe that your request for information from IFC has been unreasonably denied, or that this Policy has been interpreted incorrectly, you can submit a complaint at the link above to IFC's Access to Information Policy Advisor, who reports directly to IFC's Executive Vice President.

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF IFC/MIGA

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 

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How it works