Sovereign funds eye LatAm's biggest desal plant

Foreign sovereign funds are reportedly interested in financing the ENAPAC desalination plant in northern Chile's Atacama region, which is estimated to need US$1bn.

Representatives from six foreign funds attended the Sovereign Wealth Funds Roundtable, Investment Opportunities in the Latin American Business Hub, held in Santiago by local investment promotion agency InvestChile, ENAPAC said in a release.

The project was presented to representatives from GIC Asset Management (Singapore, US$398bn), Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (US$356bn), Investment Corporation of Dubai (US$233bn), Korea Investment Corporation (US$134bn) and China Minsheng Investment Group (US$90bn) as well as Los Angeles fund Colony Capital (US$44bn) and port operator DP World.

According to ENAPAC, following the presentation of the project the fund representatives focused their questions on the plant's potential clients, as well as investment opportunities for construction firms.

The plant, which would be the largest in Latin America with capacity of 200,000m3/d, would mostly serve mining clients.

The project also entails a 100MW photovoltaic solar plant to power the desalination plant and a transmission line, a water reservoir and distribution pipelines.

The event was also attended by government authorities, among them the head of the public works ministry's (MOP) concessions office, Hugo Vera, who presented Chile's 2018-23 concessions agenda, while the energy ministry presented transmission projects, daily La Tercera reported.

The agenda entails US$15bn in projects, which can be seen here in Spanish (requires filling out form).