Rio de Janeiro – Investment made by Eletrobras reached 8 billion Brazilian reals (US$ 4.3 billion) up to November and should reach 9 billion reals (US$ 4.8 billion) by the end of the year. “It is an absolute record,” said on Tuesday (27) the president at the electric energy holding, José da Costa. However, the figure represents 90% of the initially forecasted investment, 10 billion reals (US$ 5.4 billion).
In 2012, Eletrobras plans to invest 13.3 billion reals (US$ 7.1 billion), “already approved”, according to Costa, with 6.8 billion reals (US$ 3.7 billion) being invested in the generation sector, 3.87 billion reals (US$ 2.08 billion) in transmission and 1.86 billion reals (US$ 998 million) in distribution. The remaining funds will go to research, infrastructure and environmental quality.
The Finance and Investor Relations director at the company, Armando Casado, said that investment programmed for 2012 forecasts the release of bonds abroad for the value of US$ 2 billion. When adding funds collected abroad and funds collected domestically, the volume reaches 3.9 billion reals.
In financing by the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) and by the constitutional funds of the Northeast and Midwest, the company should collect funds of 4.1 billion (US$ 2.2 billion), to which loans from the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the German government development bank (KFW), totalling 900 million reals (US$ 483 million) will be added. The company will invest another 4 billion reals (US$ 2.1 billion) of its own funds.
In October 2011, Eletrobras collected US$ 1.75 billion with bond issues abroad, obtaining the lowest interest rates ever for the company (5.75% a year). The operation matures in ten years and was the largest operation of the kind ever developed by the company, pointed out Casado.
*Translated by Mark Ament
