Vol 5, Issue 12 (December 2004)

Need to know

• AT LAST

  The Via Maris consortium has finally closed the financing for its proposal to build a 82,000m³/d desalination plant at Palmahim, south of Tel Aviv.

• CHINESE NEWS

  The Chinese government has spread the scope of foreign investment in the water sector to cover the central and western regions of the country.

• CORPORATE NON-MOVES

  Activist fund manager Knight Vinke Asset Management has started a campaign to split Suez into two separate companies, one for energy and the other for water.

• DESAL HOPEFULS

  More than 20 companies have lined up for qualification in Poseidon Resources’ selection process for an EPC contractor for its proposed plants at Carlsbad and Huntington Beach (see Tracker p33).

• UK FINAL DETERMINATIONS

  Ofwat eased up on its draft determinations for the English and Welsh water companies when it published its final determinations at the begining of December (see table).

• VEOLIA DEALS

  The French water company has been building its position in Germany.

Analysis

• Global Water Awards

  Some categories seem more popular than others.

• Insight - David Lloyd Owen

  South East Europe pushes the boat out.

• Jolly hockey sticks

  GE’s acquisition of Ionics is a challenge for the industry’s leaders.

General

• Can the IFIs pull it off?

  Olivia Jensen and Frederic Blanc-Brude look at how the major international financial institutions are handling local currency debt and municipal finance.

• Contractors await price review pay-off

  The investment programme for the next review period will be largely outsourced to contractors. Who are the likely winners?

• Germany’s wake-up call

  Municipal utilities are hoping that benchmarking will save them from reform. They are being optimistic.

• Malaysia PPP takes shape

  Puncak Niaga has scooped a 30-year concession for Selangor as consultants suggest partnership rather than privatisation for the rest of the country.

• Marafiq and Shoaiba deadlines pushed back

  The bid deadlines for Saudi Arabia’s first two IWPPs have proved a little ambitious.

• Rising bills boost metering

  UK water customers can save £250 per year by switching to metered supply. It could cost water companies dear.

• Saur goes private for €1 billion

  A private equity firm is acquiring France’s third largest water firm – without the troublesome West African interests.

• Siemens closes in on VA TECH

  WABAG will give the German engineer a way into the treatment plant business. If it does a deal.

• Spain admits overestimating demand

  Desalination programme likely to be scaled back.

• Turkmenistan goes it alone

  The central Asian republic is rich in oil and gas, but it has no municipal wastewater treatment plants and its drinking water is saline. Alexander Danilenko looks at the challenges facing the Central Asian republic’s water sector.

Companies

• Aquarion: Kelda’s prodigal child

  Yorkshire Water’s American investment isn’t paying its way. Larry Chertoff looks at what went wrong.

• GE scoops up Ionics

  The industrial conglomerate wants to take centre stage in the water industry.

• ITT steals a march

  A major SWRO contract in the Gulf shows that vertical integration is working for ITT.

• Squaring up to a growing market

  Siemens, GE, ITT, Pentair and Danaher are all betting on water. Where will it take them?

Market insight

• Learning to live with complexity

  GWI columnist and author of Masons Water Yearbook David Lloyd Owen looks at how the private water industry has developed over the past year.