CNPE Recognizes Public Interest in Angra 3 Debt Request

Overview

• On Tuesday the Conselho Nacional de Políticas Energéticas formally acknowledged Eletronuclear’s request, clearing a policy pathway for the company to present a suspension-of-payments request to BNDES and Caixa.
• The CNPE act does not alter financing contracts or order a pause in payments, so any temporary relief will depend on BNDES’s and Caixa’s technical reviews and internal rules.
• Eletronuclear has been covering Angra 3 costs with cash from operating units Angra 1 and 2 and faces about R$1 billion in annual Angra 3 expenses, roughly R$800 million of which is debt service to the two banks.
• A BNDES study and official figures show R$12 billion has been spent on Angra 3 so far, an estimated R$23 billion would be required to finish the plant, and abandonment could produce losses up to R$21 billion.
• Next steps include formal negotiations with the banks, technical and legal assessments and a separate government decision on whether to finish, restructure or abandon Angra 3, and ENBPar says a recent R$2.4 billion settlement will not close the financing gap.