Agreement opens door to electricity super company
Folha de São Paulo
Construtora Camargo Corrêa reached an agreement with Previ and Banco do Brasil (Bank of Brazil) to merge the CPFL with Neoenergia, which represents the first solid step towards the formation of the super electricity national company in the area of distribution of energy.
The terms of the merger between the two companies have still not been concluded because the Spanish Iberdrola, shareholder and operator of Neoenergia, has not accepted that the contractor consolidates the control of the new company under its command. The contractor controls CPFL.
Between the end of last year and January this year, the four parties had three meetings. In view of the impasse with the Spaniards, it was agreed they would meet in the coming weeks so that both Camargo Corrêa and Iberdrola present new conditions to try to reach an agreement.
Together, Neoenergia and CPFL cater to more than 15 million consumer units (nearly one quarter of the whole market of the country according to such criterion), reaching more than 1,300 municipalities in seven States, besides undertakings in generation.
With the approval of the Government, Previ (Pension Fund of the employees of Banco do Brasil) and Banco do Brasil have already given their support to the contractor.
In Neoenergia, Previ has 49% of the capital, besides the 12% of Banco do Brasil de Investimentos. In CPFL, the Pension Fund of the employees of the bank has 31% of the voting capital. Previ and Banco do Brasil have agreed to be the capitalist partners in the new company.
The merger of CPFL with Neoenergia would be the first step. At a second moment, the BNDES (National Development Bank) would finance the new company to buy another distributor, probably AES, which operates in SP and RS.
According to the shareholders' agreement of Neoenergia, Iberdrola has preference in the purchase of the participation of Previ and Banco do Brasil. Before swapping stocks with CPFL, the pension fund and the bank would have to deliver their papers to the Spanish.
At the last meeting between the parties, held last month, the executives of Iberdrola said that if Camargo Corrêa insisted on the format of taking over the command of the new company alone, they would exercise the preference clause, making the merger impossible.