Israel Seeks Cash For Peru Power

Inkia Energy, a unit of Israel Corporation, hopes to complete in coming weeks the financial architecture for the 400MW Cerro del Aguila hydroelectric plant in Peru’s southern highlands. Javier Garcia-Burgos, CEO in Peru, said the company is concluding financial analysis and should have definition in August on options to finance the $750m project, by far the largest undertaken by Inkia in Peru. “This project is too big for local banks,” Garcia-Burgos tells LatinFinance. “We are looking at international banks, development banks and eximbanks and hope to have definition in the coming weeks,” he adds. Inkia currently operates a thermal generating plant with 3 turbines in Chilca that produces 570MW. It is working on a combined cycle plant there that will add another 280MW in Q3 2012, putting the company among the top energy producers in Peru, according to the government. Inkia is looking at 2 additional projects in Peru, but Garcia-Burgos says it is too early to name them. Inkia is also active in the Bolivian, Dominican, Jamaican and Salvadoran markets, producing a combined 3,000MW. It operates a hydroelectric plant in Bolivia and thermal electric plants in the other markets. “We have focused primarily on Peru, where there have been opportunities, but we are actively looking to expand in other markets in the region,” Garcia-Burgos says. He was speaking on the sidelines of the 4th Andean Investment Forum in Lima last week. Tel Aviv-listed Israel holds 100% of Inkia, which has a portfolio of hydro, natural gas and other power plants located in LatAm. Approximately 64% of capacity is in Peru. In 2007, Israel acquired the LatAm energy portfolio of Globeleq for $543m.