Colombia Power Co EEB Plans To Pay $110 Million To Shareholders

The board of Colombian state-controlled power company Empresa de Energia de Bogota SA ESP [EEB.BO] approved the distribution of an extraordinary 205 billion Colombian pesos ($110 million) to its shareholders, the company's chief executive, Monica De Greiff, said Friday in an interview.

If the company's shareholders and local regulators approve the distribution, the company would pay its shareholders COP2,384 a share.

Shares of EEB, as the company is known, rose 0.3% recently to COP125,900.

EEB, which is controlled by Bogota's city council, has received an extraordinary payment of COP229 billion from local power generation company Emgesa, which is operated by Spain's Endesa SA (ELEZF, ELE.MC) and partly owned by EEB, Henry Navarro, EEB's vice president for planning, said.

EEB's board decided it can finance its investment plans with its own cash flow and planned debt and doesn't need the new cash, Navarro said.

The Bogota city council controls 81.5% of EEB, while Ecopetrol SA (EC, ECOPETROL.BO) owns a 7.4% stake and financial holding company Corporacion Financiera Colombiana SA (CFDZY, CORFICOL.BO) has 3.8%. The remainder is in the hands of the company's current and former workers and other state-owned companies.

Johanna Castro, a stock analyst with local brokerage Corredores Asociados, said that the payment is good for minority shareholders, though in the medium term it might have been better to reduce debt instead of paying shareholders.

"There is some politics involved. The company is mainly owned by the city council, which is always in need of cash," she said.

-By Inti Landauro, Dow Jones Newswires; 57-1-694 00 76; [e-mail]