Aguas Guariroba

active

In July 2000, the Aguas Guariroba consortium was awarded a 30 year contract to expand, rehabilitate and operate the water and sewerage system of the city of Campo Grande in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. Aguas Guariroba started operating the facilities in October 2000. At the time the concession was awarded, the city of Campo Grande had a total population of 650,000 and the number of connections was 161,276. The wining consortium was controlled by Interagua –Servicios Integrales del Agua, S.A. (a subsidiary of the Spanish group Agbar, Aguas de Barcelona), 50%; Cobel - construtora de Obras e Engenharia, 41%; and the state water utility Sanesul (9%). In Octo­ber 2005 Agbar signed a contract to sell all of the shares that it held in Aguas Guariroba to Equipav S/A Pavimentacao, Engenharia e Comercio (Grupo Equipav) and Heber Participacoes Ltda (the holding company of the Bertin family –Grupo Bertin). The price of this opera­tion was reported to be US$25.8 million (57 million reals). In addition, the consortium Heber-Equipav also bought a 31% stake from Cobel. As of November 2005, Aguas de Guariroba was controlled by Equipav-Heber Participacoes (81%), Cobel (10%) and Sanesul (9%). The project involved an estimated investment of US$ 143.6 million. The government received US$ 80.6 million from the project sponsors in the awarding process: US$ 34.5 million for the concession rights and US$ 46.1 million for debts the government had with the World Bank and the state-owned bank Caixa Economica Federal. As of 2005, Aguas Gauriroba had a 642 km sewerage network with seven treating stations and 3,000 km netowrk for the provision of potable water to 98% of the population (700,000) of Campo Grande. In 2005 Agbar sold its shares in Aguas Guariroba to a brasilian consortium integrated by Equipav SA y Heber Participacoes Ltd.(http://www.agbar.es/inversores/esp/pdf/Informe_Anual_2005.pdf) The investments undertaken by Aguas de Guariroba in 2001 amounted US$ 5.8 million (R$ 13 million); in 2002 it amounted US$ 6 million (R$ 17.45 million). From 2000 to 2003, Aguas de Gauriroba invested US$ 13.3 million (R$ 40 million). In 2004, the government found that the concessionaire had failed to reach its investment goals for 2000-2003 (R$53 million) and began an investigation to see if the concession should continue.