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| This Summary of Project Information is prepared and distributed to the public in advance of the IFC Board of Directors’ consideration of the proposed transaction. Its purpose is to enhance the transparency of IFC’s activities, and this document should not be construed as presuming the outcome of the Board decision. |
Summary of Project Information (SPI) |
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| Project number | 11453 |
| Project name | Thames Water Chile |
| Country | Chile |
| Sector | Utilities |
| Department | Infrastructure |
| Company name | Aguas Nuevo Sur Maule S.A. |
| Environmental category | B |
| Date SPI disclosed | April 14, 2003 |
| Projected board date | May 16, 2003 |
| Status | Completed |
| Previous Events | Invested: January 15, 2004
Signed: December 10, 2003
Approved: May 28, 2003 |
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| Project sponsor and major shareholders of project company |
| The project sponsor is Thames Water Plc (TW or the sponsor), a fully owned subsidiary of the German multi-utility company RWE. TW is an international company that focuses on water and sanitation related services and products (utility services, equipment, property, and insurance). It is the world's third largest water company behind the French companies Vivendi and Suez/Ondeo. TW presently serves over 54 million customers around the world (or which 15 million are in the UK) and employs 11,907 people. TW has been most recently rated as an A+ risk with a stable outlook by Standard and Poors. The company had nine-month revenues of $1.7 billion and net profits of $147.5 million on total assets of US$10.4 billion and total equity of $2.5 billion as of December 2001. TW owns a 100% interest in ANSM through its wholly owned subsidiary Inversiones Thames Water Chile Ltda. |
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| Total project cost and proposed IFC investment |
| The total project cost is estimated at about $266 million, including its acquisition costs. The proposed IFC investment is an A loan for IFC’s own account of up to $35 million and a B loan for the account of participants of up to $35 million. The balance of the financing will be provided from shareholder loans and the company’s own cash generation. |
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| Location of project and description of site |
| The project is located in Chile’s VII Region, which covers a total area of 30,302 km2. The main location of ANSM’s offices is in the region’s capital city of Talca. ANSM serves 30 towns throughout the region, sourcing the water from 124 intake points (18 surface and 106 groundwater) and storing it in 65 tanks throughout the concession area. The company’s capital expenditure expansion and renovation plan, which includes the construction of wastewater treatment facilities, will be carried out throughout its operating area of the VII Region. |
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| Description of company and purpose of project |
Aguas Nuevo Sur Maule (ANSM or the company) provides water and sanitation services for the VII Region’s 160,990 clients. The region had a total population of 920,000 in the year 2001. Of the urban population of approximately 590,000 inhabitants, ANSM provides over 99% with potable water services. ANSM has water rights for 124 different sources totaling 4,584 liters/second. The majority of these sources (91%) are groundwater, with the remainder being surface water rights. These water rights, which are the equivalent of 144 million m3 of water per year, cover the region’s consumption requirements as of today about four times over. ANSM has six primary water treatment plants and eight primary wastewater treatment plants with several more under construction. Water is distributed by a pipeline network of approximately 1,679 km, complemented by a wastewater collection network of 1,373 km and 17 wastewater pumping stations.
At the end of the year 2001, ANSM’s water supply coverage was 99.6%, wastewater collection was 93.6%, and wastewater treatment was 5.7%. Almost 100% of ANSM’s customers have installed and functioning water meters. The company has a total capital investment plan amounting to $95.6 million in the years between 2002-2007, of which the large majority will be dedicated to the construction of new wastewater treatment plants. One of the first plants to be completed was for the town of Curico in December 2001, with an additional 11 smaller plants to be commissioned by the year 2004, which will result in total wastewater treatment rate in the concession area of about 87%. The company expects to achieve full wastewater treatment coverage in its concession area by the year 2006.
The capital investments to be undertaken by ANSM over the 2002-2007 period will provide important environmental and health benefits and improvements in the living standards of the inhabitants in the concession area, of which a significant proportion is poor. IFC's financial assistance to ANSM demonstrates continued visible support for the water sector in countries like Chile, where governments have made substantial regulatory improvements and other efforts to incorporate the private participation in the sector, but which are nevertheless vulnerable to recent emerging market investor concerns. IFC's support will also enable ANSM to access limited recourse project financing of appropriate maturities otherwise unavailable to ANSM at this time, thus helping to ensure its sustainability by both limiting its overall costs and keeping tariffs at a reasonable level for consumers. The project fits well with the World Bank Group strategy for Chile, which identifies infrastructure as one of the priority areas to be supported by IFC. |
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| Environmental and social issues - Category B |
This is a Category B project according to IFC's environmental and social review procedure. Environmental, safety and health and social impacts of the project include potable water quality and sustainability of raw water resources; wastewater effluent discharge and resulting ambient water quality impacts; wastewater sludge management; construction impacts (erosion and sediment control, fugitive dust control, waste management, noise control, traffic control) of water and sewer system expansion; site selection, land acquisition, right-of way access, and related compensation of affected people; fuels/hazardous materials storage and handling; emergency response planning and preparedness; and employee health and safety (including training). Like other IFC investments in the water and sanitation sector, this project can provide increased access to safe and reliable drinking water, reduce the incidence of water-borne disease caused by lack of adequate sanitation, and reverse the trend in water quality degradation of rivers currently receiving inadequately treated sewage. In addition, it can help control the release of toxic industrial discharges to the sewer system and help improve wastewater sludge management and disposal.
To view the environmental documents for this project, click here
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| Location of environmental documents in locally affected community |
The environmental documents are located in the lobby of the main offices of ANSM, at the following address:
Aguas Nuevo Sur Maule, S.A.
Monte Baeza s/n
Planta de Agua Potable San Luis
Talca
Chile |
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| To contact the project company, please write to: |
Mr. Alex Serri, Managing Director
Aguas Nuevo Sur Maule
Monte Baeza s/n
Planta de Agua Potable San Luis
Talca, Chile
Phone: (5671) 204-101
Fax: (5671) 204-102
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