Cosan wants to attract investors for cogeneration
O Estado de S. Paulo 05/22/2009
Cosan wants to attract new investors for its operations of production of electric energy from the burn of the sugarcane bagasse. For that, Cosan Bioenergia, one of the current companies of the group, is being restructured to include operations of cogeneration and the assets related to such activity from all the surplus energy generating plants that currently belong to the group, according to information provided by the Cosan General Vice-President, Pedro Isamu Mizutani. According to him, this company will manage all operations of production and sale of the energy produced from the burn of the sugarcane bagasse. "By concentrating the entire cogeneration operation spread through dozens of plants in only one company, it is easier to find investors for this undertaking", he explained.
Mizutani says there are many potential investors for the energy market that do not want to invest in sugar or ethanol. "They only want electric energy, and the creation of Cosan Bioenergia will make this process easier", he explains. The executive affirms no partnership has been closed, but the best investor would be one from a fund with a long-term profile, since the "investments in cogeneration have an average investment return of 15 years". Nevertheless, partners which may also be producers of electric energy, like the small hydroelectric plants (PCH), have not been ruled out. For Mizutani, the association with small hydroelectric plants would allow the continuous supply of energy all over the year, since the cogeneration is concentrated in the harvest period. With the start-up of the new company, Mizutani tells the plants of Cosan will be suppliers of bagasse for Cosan Bioenergia, which will supply energy for the plants. "They will be suppliers and clients one of the other", he said. The executive says that, for now, the process is in the stage of "separation of assets" in order to constitute the new company.