Brazil's Rio State Won't Sell Cedae Water Company, New President Says
Brazil's Rio State Won't Sell Cedae Water Co., Official Says
Rio de Janeiro, Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- The Brazilian state
of Rio Janeiro won't sell its water company to investors, a move
that would have raised as much as $1.7 billion for the cash-
strapped government, the company president said.
''Privatization is out of the question,'' said Marcos Helano
Montenegro, who took over the top spot at the water company
today. ''Neo-liberal solutions don't improve public services for
the citizens of Brazil.''
The announcement comes as state governments are considering
freezes on debt payments to the federal government, saying they
don't have enough money. The state of Minas Gerais, Brazil's
second most populous state, has already said it won't make debt
payments for 90 days.
The sale of Cia. Estadual de Aguas e Esgotos, Brazil's
second largest water company, was suspended in November amid
ownership battles among the state and municipalities in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil's third biggest state by population.
Underscoring the need for improvements in the water company,
some 1.8 million people in Rio were without water for parts of
the weekend after a river overflowed and the company couldn't
treat the water.
Vivendi and Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, two of France's biggest
water companies, along with the U.K.'s Thames Water Plc, were
among potential bidders for Cedae.
The sale was to the last in Rio de Janeiro state's asset
sale program, which has raised $3 billion.
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