Government wants to charge Alagoas for loss with distributor

While the Alagoas government is leading a dispute in the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to try to obtain compensation from the federal government for the sale of Ceal, the energy distributor of 39; Eletrobras, the economic zone understands that the operation may result in increased debt of the state to the Union, according to Estadão / Broadcast . The badessment is that the federal government ended up paying much more to the state of Alagoas when it incorporated the distributor than it will receive with privatization.

Ceal was on the list of distributors that would be auctioned on July 26, but STF Minister Ricardo Lewandowski granted an injunction on the eve of the suspension of the judiciary. to remove the company from the dispute.

The distributor belonged to the state of Alagoas until 1997, when it was federalised and incorporated by Eletrobras in a renegotiation agreement of state debts. In return, the Alagoan government received a Union advance of $ 229.7 million (at the time of the prices), which equates to half of the shares of the company. The rest would be settled when privatization was completed.

Ceal today has negative equity and the auction provides a minimum symbolic value of R $ 50,000 for the company to be sold. The devaluation of the distributor, according to the economic source, shows that it is the government of Alagoas that should repay the Union.

Shortly after federalization in December 1998, the Union even attempted to auction Ceal by charging a minimum price of $ 346.5 million (at the time), but There were no interested parties, which indicates that the company was overvalued.

Agreement. The law that made viable federalisations in the late 1990s provides that if the amount obtained with privatization is less than the present value of the distributor's purchase price for the Union, the difference will be made by Alagoas. The state government could, in this case, refinance the debt under the same conditions as the debt it already has with the Union.

The contract signed between Alagoas and the federal government at the time provided that the price of the acquisition would be updated by TJLP. ) plus a premium, a fixed correction in a context where the basic interest rate, the Selic, was very high. Today, however, the TLP is 6.6% (per year), higher than the Selic rate (6.5% per year). The form of correction has resulted in the accounting valuation of the acquisition price of Ceal by the Union far greater than the actual value of the company today.

It is on the basis of this contract that the economic zone badesses that Alagoas' debt will increase upon privatization. The state's debt to the Union is already in the order of 6.7 billion reais and could increase by "a few billion", according to the economic team.

The state, for its part, believes it has legal arguments to reduce R $ 1.7 billion of this debt. "We are a victim in this story," said Secretary of State Treasury, George Santoro. According to him, it is not fair that the state be wronged after the distributor has spent 20 years under the direction of the Union, without investments and without loss of market value. The arrangement is that after so long, it was characterized the purchase of Ceal by the Union, which would generate the obligation to pay the second installment (by lightening of debt).

In action, the government has requested the suspension of the privatization of Ceal to ensure that it will be repaid before the auction. However, the state has presented a different account, according to which the value of the company would then be 457.2 million reais, the lowest price of the auction failed. For the government, given the discounts provided for in the contract, the government should have received R $ 150.3 million, which, adjusted for March 2018, would reach R $ 1.7 billion. Lewandowski accepted Alagoas' arguments and granted the injunction, finding that it was necessary to avoid irreparable damage to the state.

"The governor must fight for this, it is a fiscally and technically responsible role," said the secretary. from Fazenda de Alagoas. The information comes from the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo .