Dodgy Deal: Madeira River Dams, Brazil

Date: 
Friday, February 8, 2008
Rio Madeira Dam Protest, 2006

The Madeira River Project consists of two huge hydroelectric dams on the Madeira, the principal tributary of the Amazon River in Brazil: Santo Antonio (installed generating capacity 3,150 MW) and Jirau (installed capacity 3,300 MW) - at a total cost of approximately US$10 billion. The financing for the project is not yet finalized, however, Brazilian as well as Spanish and Portuguese banks are interested in providing finance for the project.

The Brazilian state-owned banks Banco do Brasil*, along with the largest Brazilian private banks Banco Itaú*, Banco Bradesco* and Unibanco* are currently analysing the project. The Spanish bank BBVA* also expressed an interest. Banco Santander is the project advisor and lead arranger of Odebrecht, having already launched a private equity fund, together with the Portuguese Banif, to take an equity stake of 20%. Other banks, such as Banco Votorantim, Pactual, to name a few, are actively tracking the project to grasp financing opportunities. (* Equator Principles banks)
 

Follow the link to BankTrack's Dodgy Deal Section for more information on the financing of the Rio Madeira projects. http://www.banktrack.org/?show=dodgy&id=38