The government is creating a new company to be able to sell shares in the government-built Punta Catalina power plant, as reported in Listin Diario. The new entity is incorporating Central Termoeléctrica Punta Catalina S.A., in which the Public Electricity Corporation (CDEEE) and the Fund for Capitalized Government Companies (Fondo Patrimonial de las Empresas Reformadas -Fonper) will be shareholders, reliable sources told the newspaper.
The new company would take on the total or partial assignment of the rights, works, benefits and/or obligations contained in the Contract of Engineering, Procurement and Construction-Contract of EPC No.101/14. This is the contract signed on 14 April 2014 between CDEEE, representing Edenorte, Edesur and Edeeste, and the Odebrecht-Tecnimont-Estrella Consortium, the builder of the Punta Catalina power plant. The incorporation should become final on 4 December 2019, as reported.
Hacienda Minister Donald Guerrero establishes in the document that of the amount of US$2,372,917,536.05 disbursed or in payment requests, US$622 million should be registered “as capital contributions of the institutions that will participate as shareholders in the new commercial company”.
Therefore, the minister notes, shares of the company Central Termoeléctrica Punta Catalina should be issued for US$617 million, in the name of CDEEE, and US$5 million in the name of Fonper.
The contract establishes that the owner of the Punta Catalina Thermoelectric Power Plant, via CDEEE and Fonper, the Dominican state expects to receive a reasonable annual return for its shareholding. The rest of the resources destined to the project, equivalent to US$1,750, 917,536.0.05, “must be registered in the commercial company CTPC, S.A., in the form of an account payable by said company to the Dominican State, through the Ministry of Finance”.
According to the official document, “this debt will generate an annual interest of 9.7165% on the outstanding balance and will be amortized in 360 equal monthly installments, beginning on 20 January 2020, date from which the installments will expire on the 20th of each month until the end of the commitments.”
Based on these financial conditions, the Hacienda Minister indicates that the annual debt service will be US$180 million, corresponding to monthly payments of principal and interest of US$15 million.
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Listin Diario
25 November 2019