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Franco-Portuguese consortium to finance HCB purchase
THE MOZAMBICAN government has chosen a consortium formed by the French bank CA Lyon, and the Portuguese Investment Bank (BPI) to finance the purchase of 67% of the shares of Hidroelectrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB), the company that operates the Cahora Bassa dam on the Zambezi.
A government statement announced that the CA Lyon/BPI consortium had won the tender for the financing, which the government launched on February 5. Under an agreement signed last October between Mozambican President Armando Guebuza and Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, Mozambique will own 85 per cent of the HCB shares, while the Portuguese participation will drop from the current 82 per cent to just 15 per cent.
Mozambique already owned 18 per cent of HCB. Under the October agreement, the government agreed to pay Portugal $700 million for 67 per cent of the shares.
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