Tereos to invest US$ 479.4 million in Guarani
Valor Econômico
Tereos International announced yesterday a plan to invest R$ 767 million (US$ 479.4 million) in its subsidiary Guarani. The investment will be divided almost equally between the increase of the processing capacity of sugarcane and cogeneration of energy. Of the total amount, R$ 764 million (US$ 477.5 million) will be financed by the National Development Bank (BNDES), and R$ 400 million (US$ 250 million) have already been contracted for the first phase of the investments.
In the next four years, the company will increase the processing power of Guarani from 21 million to 24.5 million tons a year, with investments in the industrial units of Cruz Alta, Tanabi, São José and Mandu and in Usina Vertente. Besides, the cogeneration capacity will be increased from the current 259 GWh to 1,172 GWh per year. "The market is in a favorable moment and it signals a strong demand for both sugar and ethanol and energy", said Alexis Duval, President of Tereos International to Valor.
Because of the new loan, Petrobras Biocombustíveis - which became a shareholder of Guarani in April 2010 - injected R$ 195.4 million (US$ 122.1 million) in the capital of the company. The investment is stipulated in the agreement between the two companies. This way, the State-owned company increases its interest in the equity of Guarani from 26.5% to 31.4%, and Tereos stays with the remaining 68.6%.
Besides the project of investment, Tereos has also concluded the process of restructuring of capital and indebtedness of Guarani, in the amount of US$ 560 million. According to Reynaldo Benitez, Investor Relations Officer of Tereos, most of the debt of the company is now long-term debt, unlike it used to be until then. "The contract has also been turned into a single contract, with several agents. That reduces the management costs, because we don't have several contracts with different deadlines and values to manage any more", said Benitez.