Mexico City (EFE).- Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced on Tuesday that the purchase of 13 electricity generation plants from Iberdrola for nearly 6 billion dollars, which he had criticized on numerous occasions, represents a “new nationalization” since they will become part of the “public patrimony”.
“Today the Government of Mexico signed an agreement to purchase 13 electricity generation plants from Iberdrola that will form part of the public patrimony and will be operated by the CFE (Federal Electricity Commission). It is a new nationalization,” said López Obrador in a video on social networks.
The message is transmitted after revealing hours before in Spain that Iberdrola reached an agreement to sell a total of 8,534 megawatts (MW) in Mexico to the largest fund manager in the country, Mexico Infrastructure Partners (MIP), with State participation.
The operation is not added to the public debt
The president made the announcement accompanied by the Secretary of the Treasury, Rogelio Ramírez de la O; the director of the CFE, Manuel Bartlett, as well as Ignacio Sánchez Galán, global president of Iberdrola; Enrique Alba, General Director of Iberdrola Mexico, and David Mesonero, General Director of Development of Iberdrola.
In his participation, De la O thanked the Spanish company for reaching an agreement and stated that this “opens the door to carry out a historic operation to acquire 13 power generation plants that are in Mexico.”
He pointed out that the National Infrastructure Fund (Fonadin) will be the institution that will surely have the majority of the capital of this transaction and will be the special vehicle to refinance the operation, which he emphasized, can reach around 6,000 million dollars.
In this sense, he pointed out that this transaction will not be added to Mexico’s public debt because Fonadin is out of the public balance.
He also said that the agreement “enriches” the CFE, giving it a critical mass of operations much greater than it already has.
“We are going to give details in the coming weeks about the details, but for now this is the information that we can make known,” said the head of the Treasury.
A long negotiation between Iberdrola and Mexico
For his part, Sánchez Galán stressed that the agreement comes after two years of negotiations and has “the spirit of respect for the policies of each of the countries where we are.”
He affirmed that they have understood the energy policy of President López Obrador, which led the Spanish company to “seek a situation that is good for the people of Mexico and that at the same time meets the interests of shareholders.”
“Our desire is to work hand in hand with the Government of Mexico in what we can help for the benefit of Mexicans,” added the manager.
Meanwhile, López Obrador emphasized that with this transaction the CFE goes from generating 39.6% to 55.5% of all the country’s energy.
“In other words, the CFE becomes the majority company, it is the majority public company to generate electricity,” he said.
He affirmed that this is important since the demand for energy generation in the country is growing due to the rise in foreign investment, he also said that this guarantees that the cost of electricity does not increase and that there is a new “nationalization” of the industry.
“This means the rescue of the CFE and is a new nationalization of the electricity industry,” he concluded.
