Pocos de Caldas Transmissora de Energia

active

In November 2006, Cobra Instalaciones y Servicios SA, was awarded in a competitive bidding process organized by by the regulatory agency ANEEL the 30-year contract to build and operate a 308-km transmission line and a substation located in the states of Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo (the line was set to link Ribeirao Preto-Estreito-Jaguara and Ribeirao Preto-Pocos de Caldas). Besides Cobra SA, seven other companies took part in the contest, but only two went through the final stage of the bidding process: Cobra SA and ISA – Interconexion Eletrica SA. The bidding criteria set by ANEEL was the lowest required annual revenue. Cobra SA presented the lowest offer, a total value of US$ 10.7 million (BRL 23.4 million), 58.8% below the ceiling set by the regulatory agency. The contract was signed in April 2007, and the sponsors created the company Pocos de Caldas Transmissora de Energia to lead the project during the 30-year contract period. The sponsor committed to invest US$ 153,7 million (BRL 307,5) in the transmission line. The construction works commenced in June 2008, but financial closure was only achieved in March 2009, when the sponsor was granted a US$ 75 million (BRL 150 million) loan from BNDES. The remaining cost was set to be financed with the sponsors’ internal resources. Construction works were concluded in April 2009 when the project started operations. In March 2010, the shareholding structure was modified when a Chinese state – owned company, State Grid International Development (SGID), acquired the project company and other transmission projects from Plena Transmissora de Energia (by the time this transaction took place, the project company was wholly-owned by Plena, which was a partnership of the spanish companies Elecnor, Cobra and Isolux). SGID invested US$ 1.72 billion in the acquisition of Plena Transmissora de Energia (BRL 3.1 billion).