Israel Discount Bank (TASE: DSCT), headed by Uri Levin, will finance a project by Fluence Water Israel, a unit of Fluence Corporation Limited (ASX: FLC), in Ivory Coast. This is the first project in Ivory Coast to be financed by an Israeli bank and backed by export credit insurance from Accountant General Rony Hizkiyahu through the state's export credit agency ASHRA.
The project in question is the construction of a water treatment plant to supply drinking water to the city of Abidjan in Ivory Coast. The project is worth €165 million (NIS 620 million), and is part of the Ivory Coast government's national development program.
As far as Discount Bank is concerned, this is a strong indication on the part of Levin, who replaced Lilach Asher-Topilsky as CEO of the bank in late 2019, to implement a strategy of rapid growth and creation of new growth engines, as he did at Discount Bank of New York, which he ran before taking up his present position. The deal with Fluence was led by Yuval Gavish, head of corporate banking at Discount Bank, who also took up his position recently.
Fluence will start build a water treatment plant with a capacity of 150,000 cubic meters a day over a period of two and a half years. The financing agreement is for medium-term credit for five years in the form of a commercial loan, and long-term credit for fourteen and a half years in the form of buyer credit. This is a further deal involving complex foreign trade finance, following deals financed by Discount Bank in recent years in Africa, Latin America and Central America, and East Asia.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 12, 2020
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2020