Termocartagena settles debt restructuring

Colombian thermo power generator Termocartagena has reached an agreement with creditors and suppliers to restructure debts of 10bn peso (US$3.37mn), local press reported. Termocartagena will pay 9bn pesos to large creditors over 10 years from February 2004 and 1bn pesos to small creditors from this year but without interest. The generator's financial problems stem from a combination of dollar-denominated gas purchases, low power demand and a government resolution requiring generators to sell at less than cost price. "We need government help...to get out of the crisis we are in," chairman Jaime Gerdts Porto was quoted as saying. The company has asked the government to guarantee its pension obligations. Termocartagena needs to invest US$10mn in its fuel consumption system to become more competitive, workers' representative Alcides Guerrero said. The company, owned by a group of Ecuadorian investors, owns a 203MW natural gas-fired plant in the Mamonal industrial park in Cartagena, which can also run on fuel oil or coal.