Eletrobrás to invest twice as much in 2009 than in the previous year
DCI 02/02/2009
Eletrobrás will invest R$ 7.8 billion (US$ 3.4 billion) in 2009, exactly the double of the R$ 3.9 billion (US$ 2.1 billion) invested last year. From the total, nearly R$ 6 billion (US$ 2.6 billion) are intended for generation and transmission and the remaining is intended for distribution. According to the president of the state-owned company, José Antonio Muniz Lopes, in spite of Eletrobrás not having met its budget forecasting of R$ 5 billion (US$ 2.7 billion) in 2008, "this year will be different", because of the volume of works placed into the to-do list for this year. According to him, most of the investment will come from the company's own funds. At least R$ 2 billion (US$ 870 million) are guaranteed by the fund for the financing of the controlled companies. He, however, did not rule out the possibility of the company's going to the market to raise funds with the purpose of completing its investments. "There is no crisis for Eletrobrás. We will not suffer its effects", he assured. He attended, together with all the presidents of the companies associated to Eletrobrás and the Minister of Mines and Energy Edison Lobão, the debate for the elaboration of the first business plan of the state-owned company for the period from 2009 to 2019. The Program of Strategic Actions, which will be the basis for this business plan. According to Muniz, it is expected that the approval of the plan occurs in an extraordinary meeting scheduled for the next February 13. The company foresees better corporate governance, seeking to achieve the Bovespa level 2 this year, a restructuring of the distributors, reformulation of the investments and the reorganization of the corporate structure.