Hidrolago de Maracaibo

concluded

In August 2001 the government of Venzuela awarded a 30 months management contract for the Zulia State public water company Hidrolago de Maracaibo to private operator AAA Servicios de Venezuela. The company operated in the Zulia state, which had some 3.5 million inhabitants in 21 municipalities. The contract covered Hidrolago's operation, maintenance, commercialization and transfer of potable water and sewerage technology. AAA committed to improve service such that after six months 20 percent of the covered population would receive water for 24 hours per day. After one year the figure was to increase to 40 percent. The private operator was to be paid a $75 million management fee. AAA Servicios de Venezuela was a subsidiary of AAA Servicios, a joint venture 51 percent owned by Colombia's Barranquilla-based Sociedad de Acueducto, Alcantarillado y Aseo de Barranquilla S.A. E.S.P. (AAA) and 49 percent owned by private Spanish group Tecnicas Valencianas del Agua (Tecvasa), based in Valencia. In turn, AAA was 60.4 percent owned by Interamericana de Aguas y Servicios S.A. (INASSA) and 35.1 percent by the Columbian District of Barranquilla, with the balance held by small local investors. INASSA was 75 percent owned by Spanish company Canal Extensia S.A. (75 percent Madrid public utility Canal de Isabel II, and 25 percent Tecvasa) and 25 percent by Soluciones Latinoamericanas de Agua S.A. (SLASA, owned by a wide group of Columbian businessmen from Barranquilla). None None