EPM Board Rejects Antioquia’s Proposed Hidroituango Share-Swap; Eyes Cash Buyout
Medellin electric power giant EPM announced today (July 28) that its Board of Directors voted to reject a proposed swap of the departmental government of Antioquia’s majority share in the (estimated) US$5 billion Hidroituango hydroelectric project — in exchange for giving Antioquia a minority share in EPM.
The EPM Board “analyzed the proposal of [acting] Governor of Antioquia Luis Fernando Suárez Vélez to sell to EPM the 52.88% participation share of the [Antioquia] government and [its development subsidiary] IDEA in the Hidroituango Hydroelectric Society,” EPM announced in a press release.
“The Board concluded that it is important for [EPM] to continue with the working groups in charge of the issue, since it considered the possibility of EPM being able to buy said participation of great interest.
“However, the Board of Directors did not see the proposed form of payment [that is, the share swap] presented by the Antioquia government and instead proposed that payment through ordinary resources be studied within the negotiating tables,” EPM added.
In the meantime, “the department of Antioquia — always close to the heart of [EPM] — will see between 2021-2024 investments by EPM amounting to COP$10.4 trillion [US$2.68 billion], during one of the most challenging times for humanity due to the pandemic of Covid-19,” according to EPM.
“These [investment] resources — included in the update of the EPM investment plan — were approved by the Board of Directors in its session on July 27, 2021. The investments will allow the development of 132 infrastructure projects in Antioquia, providing services of [electric] energy, natural gas, aqueduct and sewerage, with quality, continuity, coverage and reliability.
“These investments in the Antioquia subregions are added to the transfers from the electricity sector that the company periodically gives to 52 Antioquia municipalities located in the Magdalena Medio, Northeast, North, West, East, Southwest and Valle de Aburrá, in addition to the Regional Autonomous Corporations: Corantioquia , Cornare and Corpourabá, in jurisdictions where EPM has hydropower generation reservoirs, including the river basins that supply them, or where powerhouses — both hydraulic and thermal — are installed.
“Between 2016 and 2020 these municipalities and corporations received COP$364 billion [US$94 million,” EPM added.
