Major producers of the race to purchase two power plants • EconoJournal

The government decided at a discount period a trainee in law who threatened to impede the privatization of two power plants that are in the hands of the state Enarsa, now renamed IEASA. For the fight of badets the biggest players in the sector such as Pampa Energía, Central Puerto and YPF Luz, a subsidiary of the largest oil company in the country, among others.

The bid for the sale of factories Ensenada Barragán and Brigadier López was announced in November 2017 and He delayed more than the addition. The slowdown caused by the currency crisis, which frightened international investors interested in entering the energy sector, technical conflict between the Ministry of Finance and the Legal Department of IEASA.

The factories, which required an investment of nearly a billion dollars, were built during the government of Cristina Kirchner with a loan from the Sustainability Guarantee Fund (FGS). The portfolio in charge of Nicolás Dujovne was opposed to the sale of badets if the debt was not settled before with ANSES, which is currently around 500 million dollars. "The loss of collateral has raised a different scenario, more risky," explained the body chaired by Emilio Basavilbaso before the profile of the consultation.

In IEASA, on the contrary, they interpreted that financial guarantees could be transferred to private guarantees. This is what they raised when they launched public order. "By investing in power plants, the FGS has not considered any exit clause in case the badet changes hands, simply because the state was the actor on all sides of the counter, "said a manager who knows the details of the operation. it was decided to seek the opinion of the public credit bureau of the national audit office, which was aligned with that of the Treasury and he established that if the state privatized the factories, the FGS had to cease operations.

In career

The balance of the dispute is no stranger to the fate of the tender offer. Interested persons must submit their economic proposals by January 31st. The novelty is that they must now pay in cash the rest to cancel the FGS credit. In the case of the plant of Ensenada Barragan, located on the outskirts of La Plata, they rise to 300 million US dollars. For Brigadier López, south of Santa Fe, they amount to 160 million US dollars, According to officials and officials involved in the process, they explained to this media. "Getting credit lines for this value is not easy with these levels of country risk and macroeconomic uncertainty. It would have been better if the initial conditions had been fulfilled and the FGS guarantees have been transferred to the private sector. In addition, it is necessary to finance the closing of the cycle of factories, which implies in the case of Ensenada an additional investment of 250 million additional US dollars ", questioned on condition of appointing an employer who wished or not to participate in the central contest.

With an installed capacity of 560 megawatts (MW), the largest of the two power plants sold by the state, in the market, they predicted that their future would be defined between two: YPF Luz and Pampa Energía. However, from the group led by Marcelo Mindlin, this possibility was not possible. "It's a complex project because of technical and social problems," they warned..

The factory is half finished. It remains to install a turbine of value for which it is necessary to mount a cooling system through an aqueduct until the river to ensure the taking of water. The engineering of the work is very complicated. And they also need permits and municipal guarantees that will not be easy to obtain. Although Pampa, Central Puerto and YPF have state debts in their favor, these could now be redeem buy the badets, Companies opt for caution.

The list of interested parties also includes Central Puerto, the second largest producer of the electricity market, which finds among its minority shareholders the Caputo familysummerl Lone Star North American Investment Fund, represented in Argentina by Luis María Blaquier and Enrique Boilini, former directors of the FGS until the end of 2016, for which he knows in detail the financial engineering on which the construction of factories has been built. Lone Star is also related to the Caputo surname. Sebastián, nephew of Nicolás, personal friend of President Mauricio Macri and cousin of the former Minister of Finance and President of the BCRA, Luis Caputo.

We should not exclude the participation of medium-sized companies such as MSU Energy, which has installed a series of small power plants in the provinces of Buenos Aires and Córdoba in recent years.