Hidroelectrica Piedra del Aguila SA

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Piedra del Aguila hydroelectric plant was owned by Hidroelectrica Norpatagonica Sociedad del Estado, an Argentine state-owned company. The facility had an installed capacity of 1,400-MW and produced about 5,500 gigawatt hours of electric energy (10% of Argentina’s needs) in 1993. Hidroeléctrica Piedra del Aguila SA was created in order to privatized the hydro power plant. The company was partially privatized in December 1993 when a 59% equity stake was sold for $272.1 million to Duke Hidronor (21.7%), a subsidiary of Duke Energy (USA), TransAlta Energy (USA - 21.7%), Hidroandes (18.1%) a Chilean subsidiary of Chilgener, Emerging Markets Growth Fund (3.2%), and New World Fund (0.3%). The winning consortium paid $100 million in cash and $172 million in debt papers. The consortium also assumed debt for $405 million of company. The new owners invested $75 million between 1994 and 1996 to complete the plant. Gener acquired TransAlta's 15.8% stake in 1999 and Duke sold its 16.7% stake to Gener in early 2000. In early 2001, TotalFina acquired Gener's share in the project company closing the deal in September of 2001. TotalFina is the sole controlling shareholder with a 70% stake. In January 2004, the French company Total SA (TotalFina) filed a claim against the Argentinean government with an international arbitration tribunal (International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes - ICSID). The companies claim compensation for the losses caused by the devaluation of the Argetinean currency (peso) and the conversion of dollar-denominated tariffs into pesos. On November 12, 2006, Sociedad Argentina de Electricidad (Sadesa), owned by the Argentinian Miguens-Bemberg group and Merrill Lynch & Co (USA), signed the contract to purchase 59% of the shares of Piedra del Aguila from Total Fina for US $35 million. Sadesa S.A. is now the operator of this plant as well as Central Puerto after purchasing a controlling interest in their shares. The contract signing for both purchases was supervised by Ministerio de Planificacion Federal, Argentina’s federal planning ministry.