Reply #25: Bolivia Vice President: No New Takeovers Outside Of Oil, Gas [View All]

[Judi Lynn]

Bolivia Vice President: No New Takeovers Outside Of Oil, Gas

SANTIAGO -(Dow Jones)- Bolivia's government doesn't foresee any more government takeovers outside the oil, gas and energy sectors, Vice President Alvaro Garcia said Thursday.

The Andean nation, under the leadership of President Evo Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous head of state, has taken over companies in the oil and gas and power-generation sectors.

"In principle we don't forsee any more government takeovers in other ," Garcia told journalists after meeting with Chilean President Sebastian Pinera at the presidential palace in Chile's capital, Santiago.

In May, the Bolivian government took over the Corani SA, Guaracachi SA and Valle Hermoso SA electricity generators. Each of the Bolivian power companies had been 50% owned by the state, with the other halves held by Ecoenergy International, a subsidiary of France's GDF Suez SA (GSZ.FR), U.K.'s Rurelec PLC (RUR.LN), and the Bolivian Generating Group. Power distributor Empresa de Luz y Fuerza de Cochabamba, or Elfec, was also nationalized.

"The government announced over four years ago that oil and gas, as well as electric companies, would return to state hands. And that's what has happened," Garcia said, adding, "we're in constant talks with the previous owners to set a fair price for those assets."
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