Privatisation of Brazil’s Companhia Energétiva de São Paulo will continue, according to its new CEO, and large generating assets including hydro plants will be sold as early as June this year.

Guilherme Cirne de Toledo took over as CEO on 30 January, and he quickly confirmed that the privatisation process – which was partly his responsibility in his previous post of chief financial officer – would continue. In the company’s generation portfolio two new companies will be created: the first will comprise the hydro plants on the Paranapanema river and the second those on the Tiête river. Cirne de Toledo says that both these new companies will be sold in June, by auction rather than sale of shares. The remainder of the power plants– those on the Paraná river and the Porto Primavera – will form a third company which will be sold, also by auction, in July.

Cirne de Toledo was closely involved in preparing Companhia Energétiva de São Paulo for privatisation in his previous role; he managed renegotiation of the company’s debts and ensured that the issue of bonds onto the international market was made in good conditions. According to Cirne de Toledo, ‘such factors translate the credibility that the company has achieved both in national and foreign markets’.

The previous head of CERP, Andrea Matarazzo, has been appointed by governor Mário Covas to direct the State Secretariat of Energy. Matazzo also took over his new post on 30 January.