Utility company Empresas Publicas de Medellin looks to expand into Central America, reported El Colombiano Friday.
With the purchase of three energy companies in Guatemala, El Salvador and Panama, EPM’s CEO, Federico Restrepo Posada, said that his company is looking with interest at the water sectors of Mexico and Puerto Rico. Restrepo also said that the company’s external expansion plan is focused on the possibility of constructing and operating 142 water treatment plants in Mexico, and operating one of the three aqueducts planned for Puerto Rico’s capital, San Juan.
The ambitious target of the watrer division of EPM is to generate income of between $500 million by 2015, $300 million in Colombia and $200 million from abroad. Restrepo said “The financial crisis of 1998 was favorable because developing countries were caught “with their pants down” and were forced to pull out.”
He went on to say that initial responses to unsolicited offers, to buy water companies, were negative a year and a half ago, but eight months ago companies from Guatemala, El Salvador and Panama began to consult EPM to see if it was still interested.
“We arrived at these agreements in optimal conditions in terms of the size of the market.”