ISA mulls US$20mn local bond for concession

A US$20mn bond issue in Bolivia is among options being considered by Colombia's state transmission company ISA to finance the construction and 30-year operation of three transmission lines in Bolivia, CEO Javier Gutierrez told BNamericas. ISA has just started market studies into the bond issue, the first tranche of which would not be launched until the second half of 2004, ISA tenders director Guillermo Marquez said. Different tranches would be issued in accordance with the cash flow requirements of the project, he added. "But [the bonds] are just one possibility in the studies and analysis that ISA is doing," Gutierrez said, adding that other alternatives are loans from multilateral institutions such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Andean Development Corporation (CAF) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), as well as European institutions. ISA is in talks with some of these sources, but has not yet made an official financing request, Gutierrez said. The Colombian company won the concession in June with a US$87.3mn bid to build and operate the 230kV Santivanez-Sucre, Sucre-Punutuma and Carrasco-Urubo lines. Then two weeks ago it awarded the contract to build the lines to a consortium of Bolivia's Ingelec, France's Alstom and Colombia's Electrica de Medellin, and the contract to provide the associated substations to Germany's Siemens, said Gutierrez. He was speaking from La Paz at the official start of operations of ISA Bolivia, set up to manage the concessions. Based out of Santa Cruz, ISA Bolivia will be under the management of CEO Fernando Almario Arguello, previously director of project implementation in ISA's construction and materials department.