Vol 5, Issue 11 (November 2004)

CHINA NEWS
Shanghai’s largest water treatment plant is changing hands.
DESAL SAGAS
The socialist victory in the Spanish elections in March had a hidden drawback for the country’s desalination industry.
DIFFICULT SALES
Rothschild must feel like destroying the French Airforce in retaliation for the French army blowing up the Ivory Coast Airforce earlier this month.
EBAY SPECIAL
A strange proposition came across GWI’s desk this month. Did we want to buy a desalination plant?
FRENCH NEWS
Suez found itself downgraded by Credit Suisse First Boston after a fairly inoffensive set of third quarter results at the beginning of November.
GE to buy Ionics
The industrial group has found the missing piece in its water portfolio
LATIN AFFAIRS
Municipal elections in São Paulo on 1 November should make life easier for Sabesp, the São Paulo state water company which is quoted on the New York Stock Exchange.

Bush whacked
Is the US election outcome good or bad for water?
Disi-headed reasoning
Can you undercut the price of a BOT contract?
Insight - David Lloyd Owen
South Staffs – last of the old bids and deals or first of the new?
The bargain basement
Where is the international private water industry headed?

Berlinwasser International up for sale
The city can’t afford to keep it. Its other shareholders have little interest in seeing it grow.
Contractors and suppliers gear up for pipeline deals
A succession of water transmission schemes are due to be tendered throughout the Gulf.
Double-digit growth for filtration market
Two market research firms have published reports on the global filtration market. Larry Chertoff examines their conclusions.
Jordanians cancel Disi BOT
The scheme will now go ahead on an EPC basis.
Selangor jumps the gun
Malaysia’s water minister wants to introduce UK-style water regulation. Its most prosperous state will not wait.
Severn Trent to open pipes to competition
The ombudsman has forced the firm to let a competitor use its pipes to reach a customer; but elsewhere efforts to introduce competition are going slowly.
South Staffs moves to Bahrain
First Islamic Investment Bank has paid a handsome price for the utility.
Who dares challenge Ofwat?
The regulator can only benefit from a challenge at the Competition Commission, but the water companies can lose as well as win.
Who would be a Galli slave?
Ten years after the Galli law reformed Italy’s water sector, utility operators give their verdict on the progress so far.

GWI website gets the whole story
Issues will now be available to subscribers online. Marketing manager Alison Ireland introduces our new website.

GWI presents the Global Water Awards
It is time to nominate those who have done the most to make the water industry better in 2004.

Ready for advanced solutions?
Automatic Meter Reading is one of the fastest growing equipment supply sectors in the US. GWI special correspondent John Kolodziejski looks at what is driving this growth and the scope for further expansion in international markets.