The consortium led by Rowing S.A. will acquire 90% of the shares of Aguas y Saneamientos Argentinos for 340.2 million dollars. The National Treasury expects to receive the funds by year-end.
The consortium headed by Rowing S.A. has been awarded the concession of Aguas y Saneamientos Argentinos (AySA) after presenting a bid of 340.2 million dollars for 90% of the shares of the company. The operation, which still needs to complete administrative procedures, will allow the National Treasury to receive the funds before the end of the year, as confirmed by sources from the Ministry of Economy to Infobae.
The winning bid exceeded that of the other finalist, the group led by Grupo Roggio, by almost 20%, which proposed 285 million dollars. The winning consortium is made up of local and Brazilian capital and will take over the management of the company starting in January or February 2027, when the takeover is completed.
The process still requires the review of the economic offers by the evaluation committee, which will issue its ruling within two days. A source from AySA explained:
“Now it should be reviewed by the evaluation committee and in two days the evaluation ruling of the economic offers will be issued. After that, it moves to the awarding and the signing of the share purchase contract.”
The signing of the purchase contract is expected for mid-November, according to estimates from the company. Once formalised, 90% of the shares will be transferred and the State will receive the committed amount. The concession will have an initial duration of 30 years, with the possibility of extending it for another 10 years, up to a maximum of four decades.
The Ministry of Economy included this sale within its financial programme for 2026, which contemplates 800 million dollars from privatisations to cover financing needs exceeding 19.2 billion dollars. The 340.2 million from this operation will be received by year-end, while the rest of the funds expected from privatisations will arrive in the first quarter of 2027, according to the same sources.
The portfolio headed by Luis Caputo claims to have a surplus of nearly 4 billion dollars, so the delay in the schedule would not cause difficulties. The initial projection for the AySA share package was around 500 million dollars; the final offer fell below that figure, a difference that authorities attributed to the volume of investments that the new concessionaire will have to face.
AySA provides drinking water and sewage services to 14 million inhabitants of the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires (AMBA). According to the Ministry of Economy, one third of the concessioned area still lacks access to both services. The portfolio also noted that the company received transfers from the Treasury of over 13.4 billion dollars between 2006 and 2023 and described its previous management as “a model of administrative dysfunction.”
The new concessionaire will have to assume operational and investment commitments from the start of the operation, a factor that influenced the final valuation of the share package. The transfer of funds will take place after the signing of the contract, expected in November.
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