USD 50 million for RECOPE

(Special, September 18, 2008). Today, Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) approved an operation of up to USD 50 million in favor of RECOPE, a major Costa Rican state-owned oil company, for financing working capital operations. This credit facility is in the form of a short-term, non-underwritten revolving line of credit for meeting payment of the country’s oil import bill.

Enrique Garcia, CAF’s President and CEO, highlighted that this operation is an example of the role that the Corporation has assumed with its shareholder countries “of strengthening the public sector as a fundamental player in sustainable development, while seeking to promote the productivity and competitiveness of companies in the region.”

It is also hoped that this will help to strengthen Costa Rica’s energy sector, considered to be a strategic priority for the country. The purpose of RECOPE –a company owned 100% by the Costa Rican State and geared to the importing, refining, and wholesale distribution of fuels- is to guarantee the supply of and meet the domestic demand for fuels in Costa Rica.

The relationship between CAF and RECOPE started in 2004, when the Corporation partially financed the third stage of the Limón-La Garita Multiple Pipeline via a long-term USD 30 million loan; later, in 2006, it granted additional financing of USD 20 million for the same project.

RECOPE is a public state-owned company that is structured as a commercial corporation and subject to the supervision and oversight of Costa Rica’s Comptroller General’s Office, Budget Authority, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of National Planning and Economic Policy, and Central Bank. Moreover, it is the only company in Costa Rica that is authorized to market crude and oil derivatives.