BNDES to approve San Francisco hydro loan Dec.1

Brazil's national development bank BNDES is due to approve a loan Monday (Dec.1) for the construction of Ecuador's US$302mn, 230MW San Francisco hydro project on the Pastaza river, newspaper Expreso reported. Previous reports put the loan at US$268mn, but the exact amount will be announced only at the time of signing. The loan is for 14 years with a grace period of 54 months. San Francisco will increase Ecuador's installed capacity by just over 8% and should start up in 2007, the report said. The Hidropastaza consortium was awarded the construction concession for the project in March 2000. Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht has a 14% stake in Hidropastaza, which is led by Ecuadorian state-owned company Hidroagoyan with 80%.