From today''s Financial PostDAVID PETTFinancial Post dpett@nationalpost.com
Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is wading deeper into South America after announcing it will acquire up to 100% of Esval S.A., Chile’s third-largest water utility company.
Teachers said it will pay insurer Consorcio Financiero SA $384million for the 49% stake it owns in Esval and subsidiary Aguas del Valle S.A. Together, the two companies serve about 16% of the country’s regulated water market.
Teachers will acquire the rest of Esval’s stock via public tender as required by Chilean securities law, making the final investment considerably higher.
Chile’s Corfo agency owns about 29% of Esval’s shares and most of the rest is owned by the public, Teachers said. The offer is conditional on Teachers getting at least 50.1% of Esval’s total outstanding shares.
Esval is Teachers’ second investment in Chilean water this year, after the fund agreed in May to buy Aguas Nuevo Sur Maule SA and half of Essbio SA from Southern Cross Investment Fund, a sale that should be completed this month.
“Chile has what we looked for when considering countries to invest in,” Debra Hanna, Teachers’ manager of pension communications, said yesterday. “Chile has a growing economy, it’s open to foreign investment, the political environment is quite stable and the infrastructure regulatory environment is quite mature, particularly for water and waste-water services. These are all things we look for when we look at where to invest.”
Teachers, Canada’s largest pension fund, continues to take a shine to South America as a prime destination for investment opportunities. In addition to its Chilean forays, the fund recently increased its stake in Brazil, taking up to a 15% position worth $185-million in the Brazilian port company LLX Logistica SA, owned by iron-ore tycoon Eike Batista. The pension fund is the second-largest investor in Mr. Batista’s parent company, MMX Mineracaoe Metalicos SA. Teachers also took an interest in a property management company that owns and manages nine regional shopping malls in Brazil in July, 2006, through its investment in Toronto-based Cadillac Fairview Corp.
The $106-billion Teachers fund is moving increasingly toward infrastructure, timber and private-equity investments as alternatives to stock and bond investments. “With infrastructure investments, we aim for returns that are highly correlated to inflation. This helps us cover the cost of inflation-protected pensions for our plan members.” Jim Leech, senior vice-president of Teachers Private Capital, the pension plan’s private investment arm, said in a statement.