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, FO_R·l~MEDIAT             'RE.LEASE




      IFC Press Release No. 74/20
      Wednesday, July 3, 1974


                                    IFC Supports Philippine Industry
                              $1.2 Million for Food Processing Project

                  The International Finance Corpo~ation (IFC), an affiliate of the World

      Bank, is lending $1.2 million to RFM.Corporation, a Philippine food processing

      company.      The loan will help RFM to set up a new plant at Cabuyao, 45 miles

      south of Manila, with an annual capacity of 4,500 tons of canned and p~ocessed

      meats       and vegetables.     The total cost of the project is estimated at $4

      million •


•                 Technology for the meat processing operation will be provided under

      a license and technical agreement with Swift and Co. of Delaware; vegetable

      processing and some speciality products will be licensed by Libby, McNeill,

      Libby, of Chicago.

      Background
                   RFM Corporation, formerly Republic Flour Mills, Inc., was established

      in the Philippines in 1957.          It changed its name in 1973 to better reflect

      its diversification from a flour milling company into an integrated food

      processing enterprise, which is 90 per cent owned by Philippine shareholders.

      Financing
                   New equity capital equivalent to $735,000 has already been provided

      by RFM's shareholders.          Loans totalling just under $3 million will be provided




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by the Private Development Corporation of the Philippines, a local development

finance company which IFC helped to establish in 1963, and by IFC.   The Compa-

ny's own cash generation will account for the remainder.

Economic Effects
        The purpose of the project is to supply fresh and processed meat and

vegetable products to markets in the Philippines in order to meet the rapidly

expanding demand for these products at reasonable prices.   The project will

employ 350 persons when it reaches full capacity.   In addition, it will

contract out to small-scale farmers a large part of the production of cattle

and hogs to be processed in the plant.
        This will be IFC's fourteenth investment in the Philippines, a

country where the Corporation's commitments now total $69.l million.
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