28 Mar
Posted by Brian Anderson as Finance Help
The global financial crisis forced Mexico’s transport and communications ministry (SCT) to implement a series of adjustments to highway projects to make them more attractive and feasible, according to the ministry’s undersecretary of infrastructure, Уscar de Buen.
“The new challenges under current market conditions forced us to review and adapt projects to make them more bankable,” de Buen said.
Some of the issues authorities had to tackle were the lower availability of funds for infrastructure, higher interest rates and shorter loan terms and a decrease in the number of players. At the same time, toll-based revenues fell 3% in real terms and traffic volume decreased, according to de Buen.
STRATEGIES
To adapt to the changed landscape, SCT implemented nine principal policy changes.
First of all, the size of projects was scaled down to US$100-400mn to reduce the amount of financing needed.
28 Mar
Posted by Brian Anderson as Finance Help
International commodities trader Trafigura Beheer has agreed to make an equity investment of Cdn$3mn (US$2.9mn) in Vancouver-based Andean American Mining (TSX-V: AAG), which at current prices translates into a roughly 8.7% stake, Andean’s IR official Nancy Massicotte told BNamericas.
Trafigura will acquire some 7.5mn shares, Massicotte said, adding that funds will be used for further construction at the Invicta polymetallic project in Peru and general corporate affairs.
Andean American said in a release that Trafigura will receive a long term off-take agreement for the sale of copper, lead and zinc concentrates from Invicta.
The companies also plan to negotiate a project finance, cost overrun and working capital facility for up to US$15mn.
Trafigura was also granted an option to increase its equity interest in Andean American by acquiring an additional 16% in the company.
28 Mar
Posted by Brian Anderson as Finance Help
Peru’s energy and mines ministry announced it is accepting comments to planned changes to the regulation of the geothermal resources law.
The new regulation will include substantial changes to the requirements and obligations of investors, a ministry release quoted power concessions director Mardo Mendoza as saying.
The goal is to guarantee energy supply and advance the diversification of the country’s energy matrix, said the ministry.
Peru does not boast geothermal power production although a number of companies are carrying out exploration including Vancouver-based Magma Energy (TSX: MXY).
Prefeasibility studies on geothermal power generation have determined potential capacity of 150MW at two fields in the Candarave area, 4,500m above sea level in Tacna region, BNamericas reported previously.
28 Mar
Posted by Brian Anderson as Finance Help
Chilean President Sebastián Piñera and the general manager of water utility Aguas Andinas, which serves the metropolitan region, Joaquín Villarino, inaugurated the Mapocho Urbano Limpio wastewater collection pipeline on Tuesday.
The 29km pipeline runs parallel to the Mapocho river and required a US$113mn investment.
The project eliminates a total of 21 wastewater discharge points – nearly 5,000l/s of wastewater – along the river and will transport the wastewater to treatment plants La Farfana and El Trebal, in the city’s western area.
The initiative benefits the whole city, but especially Las Condes, Providencia, Santiago Centro, Renca, Quinta Normal, Cerro Navia, Pudahuel and Maipú districts, where the discharge points were located.
Mapocho Urbano Limpio increases Santiago’s wastewater treatment coverage from 69% to 86%. Bra
28 Mar
Posted by Brian Anderson as Finance Help
The droughts caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon, which sent dam levels across Colombia to historic lows, are forcing officials to evaluate deficiencies in the natural gas sector. As thermo power generators have increased demand for the clean burning fuel because of low hydrology, the country has faced widespread difficulty in coordinating supply.
Colombia’s ministry of mining and energy, meanwhile, has commissioned studies on the subject and invited industry officials to comment. Energy and mining minister Hernán Martínez Torres said last year that a natural gas regulator could be set up in 2010 and serve a similar function to wholesale power market regulator XM by coordinating production, distribution and transportation.
A recent ministry-commissioned report by consultancy Frontier Economics argued that Colombia’s gas industry failures lay in the sector’s inflexibility to deal with sudden surges in demand that can be influenced by temperature, season and hydrology.