Porto do Pecem I Power Plant

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In 2007, the Brazilian company UTE MPX, a subsidiary of MPX (EBX Group), was one of the companies that emerged as winners in a competitive bidding process organized by the federal agency CCEE for the future sale of electricity to the Brazilian regulated market (energy that is sold exclusively to the distribution companies). MPX's purpose was to guarantee a power purchase agreement for a coal-fired power plant yet to be built by the company in the city of Sao Goncalo do Amarante, State of Ceara. The company was able to arrange the sale of 615 MW annually. This represented annual revenues of US$ 233.8 million (BRL 467.5 million) for 15 years. The remaining 105 MW was set to be sold in unregulated wholesale markets. The power purchase agreement guaranteed the full recovery of the fuel costs in addition to exchange rates fluctuations. A 35-year license contract was signed with the regulatory agency ANEEL in March 2008. In September 2008, the authorization was transferred to MPX Pecem Geracao de Energia S.A. The total investment in the ten facilities was estimated at US$ 1.4 billion. Financial closure for the project was reached in September 2009, when state-owned bank BNDES approved a US$ 700 million (BRL 1.4 billion) loan MPX Pecem Geracao de Energia S.A. (to be paid back in 17 years, starting in 2012). The company was also able to raise another US$ 327 million from the IADB early in that year (March 2009), through a project finance facility that included US$ 147 million in funding directly obtained from the IADB (14-year loan to be paid back between 2012 and 2026) and US$ 180 million in syndicated loans of three other financial institutions (10-year in loans to be paid back between 2012 and 2022). The remaining investment expenditures were set to be financed with the sponsors’ equity. Construction works started in 2008 and operations were set to commence prior to January 2012, when the sponsors committed to start supplying the regulated energy market. Operations commenced in November 2012. In September 2013, EBX sold part of its ownership in MPX, the subsidiary of EBX Capital Partners responsible for managing the group's energy projects. MPX changed its name to Eneva, and its ownership structure was established as follows: EBX, 20%; the German company E.ON, 42.9%; free float, 37.1%. In December 2014, Eneva sold half of its stake in the power project to the Portuguese company EDP.