AGUAS ARGENTINAS

completed

Summary Of Project Information (SPI)Project NameArgentina - Aguas Argentinas S.A.     RegionLatin America and CarribeanSectorProject No003808Projected Board DateAugust 5, 1995Company NameAguas Argentinas, S.A.Technical Partner and/or Major Shareholders Aguas Argentinas’ (Aguas) major shareholders are: Lyonnaise des Eaux (25%) from France and Sociedad Comercial del Plata (19.5%) from Argentina. As part of an earlier financing package arranged for Aguas, IFC has acquired 5% of the total shares in the Company. Other shareholders are S.G. Aguas de Barcelona (Spain), Compagnie Generale des Eaux (France), Anglian Water (UK), Meller Group (Argentina) and Banco de Galicia y Buenos Aires (Argentina). Also, Aguas’ employees hold 10% of the total share capital. Lyonnaise des Eaux has entered into a management contract with Aguas whereby Lyonnaise will act as the operator and manager of Aguas for the life of the concession.Project Cost Including proposed IFC investment The project is an interest rate swap to effectively fix the interest rate on Aguas’ US dollar floating rate obligations under an existing IFC-syndicated loan with notional outstanding amount of US$134.5 million. The loan-equivalent exposure resulting from the swap would be approximately US$2.5 million.Location of project and Description of site Metropolitan Buenos AiresDescription of Company and Purpose of Project Aguas is the holder of a 30-year exclusive concession to provide potable water and sewerage services to Metropolitan Buenos Aires. Under the concession contract, Aguas is committed to an investment program of approximately US$4 billion over the life of the concession. Aguas anticipates raising large amounts of additional debt financing to support its capital expenditure program. As part of its overall financing strategy, the company seeks to fix the interest rate on a portion of its liabilities as favorable market conditions allow, so that its entire liability structure is not subject to interest rate fluctuations.Environmental Category and Issues This project is classified a Category C project according to IFC’s environmental review procedures.The is from the Public Information Center.Date SPI sent to PIC August 1, 1995For Additional Information contact: Corporate Relations Unit -telephone: (202) 473-7711facsimile: (202) 676-0365Environmental documents for this project are available at http://www.ifc.org and from the World Bank InfoShop (http://www.worldbank.org/html/pic/aboutinfo.html).