From hevea to natural rubber

Natural rubber comes from the rubber tree, whose plantations act as carbon sinks: a one-hectare plantation "captures 250 tonnes of carbon in 30 years," according to the World Wide Fund for Nature. At the end of its operating period, the rubber tree is felled for replanting. Advances in research allow these replanting to be carried out with much more efficient plant material.
Natural rubber is used mainly for the manufacture of tires (75% of world production), but also in the medical field or in industry.

As part of its development plan, the Société Internationale de Plantations d'Hévéas * (SIPH), leader in the production of natural rubber in Africa, with 60,000 hectares of agricultural land divided between Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, Nigeria and Liberia, plans to develop two new rubber processing plants in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana.

It is in this context that the Societe Generale Group intervened as arranger, coordinator and financing agent for this expansion project alongside Proparco, Bank of China, LCL and Banque Palatine.

SIPH has the particularity of combining raw material from its own plantations with purchases made from independent growers. This collaboration significantly increases the production of SIPH. In return, the company is actively engaged in the development of local economic and social life and continuously contributes to improving the quality of life of private growers. Preserving the environment is also at the heart of the Group's concerns, with a zero-deforestation commitment, in particular with the support of a program to monitor its areas of activity by satellite.

Sharing common values, Societe Generale is proud to support the SIPH group in the realization of its project contributing to the development of local economies while respecting sustainability standards.

Societe Generale is committed, through its Grow with Africa initiative, to supporting the continent towards a just, ecological and inclusive transition. With a history stretching back over a century, the Group, anchored in 19 countries, is the leading international bank in West Africa.
 

_{* subsidiary of the agro-food group SIFCA, the leading employer in Côte d'Ivoire, and also owned by the French company Michelin.}