EPM urges Afinia govt takeover as power crisis grips northern Colombia

Medellín mayor Federico Gutiérrez called on Colombia's government to consider acquiring EPM's controlling stake in struggling electricity distributor Afinia amid an escalating energy crisis in the country's north. 

According to Gutiérrez, Afinia faces structural problems that make its business model unviable while threatening the continuity of electricity supply to millions of users. 

"We are issuing an SOS and telling the national government that a solution must be found," Gutiérrez told reporters. "Even if the solution is for the government to acquire 100% of the shares that EPM has in Afinia, we are willing to facilitate that."

EPM, which is owned by the city of Medellin, has an 87.4% stake in Afinia alongside its Panama-based subsidiary EPM Latam, which holds the balance. 

Gutiérrez, who is also the chairman of EPM, stressed that a buyout of Afinia's shares was preferential to intervention, in which the government would be forced to "inject very large resources and leave aside social works."

“Afinia's losses... put EPM at serious risk," Gutiérrez said. "It also affects Medellín because the city depends on the transfer of profits.”

Afinia was formed in 2020 following an auction of assets belonging to the CaribeMar division of the now-defunct utility Electricaribe. 

The Cartagena-based company, which serves 1.7mn users in 134 municipalities in the departments of Bolivia, Magdalena and Cesar, is not the only distributor in Colombia's Caribbean coastal region facing financial difficulties. 

The Colombian government this week announced it would intervene to guarantee electricity services for customers of Barranquilla-based firm Air-e.

According to the energy ministry, Air-e currently has debt commitments totaling 1.8tn pesos (around US$420mn).